Immigration Officers Pose as OSHA Officials to Entrap Immigrant Workers

By Danielle Briones

Published on July 24, 2005

With a flier announcing a mandatory Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) meeting, ICE officials arrested 48 undocumented workers who attended the meeting.

The ruse prompted outcries from the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, among others. Opponents of the measure complained that the operation diminished the ability of OSHA to protect the segment of the American workforce most likely to suffer on the job injury or death that was targeted in the sting.

There are more than 10 million foreign-born workers in the US, and they make up 15 percent of the work force. Immigrant workers have the highest rates of on-the-job injuries and fatalities. 69 percent of all on-the-job injuries/deaths happen to Hispanic workers.

In the meatpacking industry, more than half the workers are foreign-born, and in some plants, up to 80 percent of the workers are immigrants.

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