Jeanne Kuang, CalMatters, July 18, 2024
“Even with all of the industries the place Californians went on strike throughout final 12 months’s “scorching labor summer season,” a few of the most energetic websites of organizing within the state might be a pair of personal immigration detention facilities within the Central Valley. The Mesa Verde and Golden State Annex services, operated by The GEO Group, a Florida-based federal detention contractor, have been a hotbed of activism for the reason that pandemic. Nevertheless it’s not The GEO Group’s employees agitating for higher pay and dealing circumstances. It’s their detainees — immigrants awaiting the outcomes of deportation instances or asylum claims, a lot of whom additionally work the place they’re jailed, scrubbing bogs and chopping hair for $1 a day. … Labor and immigration coverage specialists consider it’s the first time the state has handled detained immigrants as staff who profit from office security protections. The case is earlier than a three-member appeals board of Cal/OSHA — the state’s occupational security and well being company — as California grapples with whether or not to expand labor rights to state prisoners, together with a proposition on the November ballot. Much more novel: The state’s Division of Occupational Security and Well being in Could despatched the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety a request to not deport seven complainants for a minimum of two years, below a Biden administration program to quickly shield immigrant staff who’re aiding with labor investigations. “Cal/OSHA can not correctly pursue enforcement motion with out the cooperation of employee detainees in these conditions,” company chief Debra Lee wrote. It’s “extremely uncommon, if not distinctive” for the state to ask federal immigration authorities to quickly waive deportation for state witnesses towards the immigration authorities’ contractor, mentioned Anastasia Christman, senior coverage analyst on the Nationwide Employment Legislation Undertaking.”
