Immigration Related Threats by Employers Spiking in California, Worker Advocates Say

0:00From KQED. Support for KQED Podcasts comes from Stanford Live featuring violin duo Simone Porter and Blake Poulietz, California inspired program. Plus Rob Capelow with What Makes It Great. Tickets on sale at live.stanford.edu. A dark night, a quiet house, but inside danger was lurking. Oh, not really. We have Xfinity Shield, so we're not worried. What if protecting your home and devices could be drama free? Xfinity. Imagine that. Restrictions apply, not available in all areas. Good morning. This is the California Report. I'm Alex Hall. The City of Fresno will soon ban AI data centers within city limits. That's after the Fresno City Council on Thursday unanimously approved a resolution opposing their construction. The resolution directs city staff to create a ban that will be in effect for 10 years then become permanent.

1:00KVPR reports that community members have voiced concerns over data centers, water and electricity consumption, as well as potential air pollution. Earlier this summer, California signed off on an agreement to share state drivers license data with a national database. Officials at the time said the move was needed to comply with the Federal Real ID Act. Non-citizens are legally allowed to obtain driver's licenses in California. An immigration and privacy advocates worried that information would be vulnerable in a national database. Now our partner CalMatters has reported the Department of Homeland Security was actively pursuing driver data from the group that manages the database. At the same time, California was weighing those concerns. Reporter Wendy Fry has been following the story. Basically, the fears of some of the advocates came to fruition here. So the Trump administration was already seeking access to information about 17 million commercial

2:06drivers. You know, the Department of Homeland Security said in their subpoena they specifically want these records because they want to do immigration enforcement. CalMatters reports that subpoena from DHS came to light because of a recent lawsuit, a spokesperson for the National Driver Database that got the subpoena declined to comment. Governor Gavin Newsom's office, which backed the data sharing, has said the concerns from advocates are overblown. As the Trump administration ramps up immigration arrests to levels not seen in years, worker advocates and state officials say some employers are taking advantage of the political climate to exploit immigrant workers in lower wage jobs. KQED's Farida Javalaro Mero reports. Francisco has made and installed windows in the Bay Area for more than 16 years, and he's a proud father of three. But earlier this year, he couldn't sleep. He burst out crying during family meals.

3:08One day, when he saw a black suburban parked near his apartment, he rushed to lock all the doors and hide. He says his boss threatened to report him to ICE. If Francisco spoke with state regulators investigating claims the company underpaid workers. KQED is withholding his full name because he does not have a legal immigration status and fears retaliation. Francisco says he was afraid and traumatized. He was so stressed out, his wife took him to CSI Chaitras. Francisco ended up finding a new job, but he's still angry about the emotional toll on him and his family. Supervisors threatening to call ICE? That's nothing new. But with federal agents dramatically detaining so many people under the Trump administration,

4:10workers are taking the thread seriously. And many decide it's not worth the risk to complain about wage theft, harassment, or other workplace issues. My myrtega is with the North Coast State's Carpenters Union. State figures show complaints of retaliation involving immigration threads have spiked under the first and current Trump administration. Many few workers will go to the authorities, but the California Labor Commissioners Office reports about 200 immigration threat complaints since 2025. That's nearly as many as during the entire four years of President Joe Biden's administration. I do believe that this is the tip of the iceberg and that there's many, many more of these immigration-related threats.

5:12Under an attorney Ruth Silver-Tob, supervises a legal advice line in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. She's also supervising attorney of the workers' rights practice at Santa Clara University's School of Law. These threats are designed to deter workers from coming forward, and I think they're successful. Under federal and state laws, employees have the right to minimum wage and other workplace protections, regardless of their immigration status. Threatening a worker for trying to exercise those rights is illegal. Some managers don't know that, says Paul the Camp, an attorney in Washington DC who represents employers. He's a former administrator at the U.S. Department of Labor. If a manager or supervisor gets annoyed, perhaps because workers are talking about unionizing or they're complaining about working conditions or otherwise asserting their rights, the manager or supervisor in an attempt to try to take control of the situation may make a threat like

6:15this, which of course is illegal. California Labor Commissioner Lili Garcia-Brower says her agency collaborates closely with advocates and community leaders to educate employers and workers. We do not collaborate with the federal government. We do not ask about immigration status. We don't ask for social security numbers, and it is safe for them to proceed in cooperating with us. That said, every worker is making an individual calculation as to how safe they actually are. A bill that just landed on the governor's desk would clarify the law to say that all threats to call immigration, even if preemptive, are illegal and punishable with up to $10,000 in penalties per violation. The governor has until the end of September to sign or veto the measure. For the California Report, I'm Farida Jevala Romero. And that's the California Report for Tuesday, September 8.

7:23Your production of KQED News. I'm Alex Hall. Thanks for listening and have a great day. Support for the California Report comes from Stanford Medicine, comprising at School of Medicine and Adult and Children's Health Systems, working together to advance knowledge and improve lives. Stanford Medicine.org Paint care. Making paint recycling easy at more than 800 sites in California, paint care.org. And Eric and Wendy Schmidt, whose philanthropy works to create a healthy, resilient, secure world for all on the web at the Schmidt.org.