Hi friend,
Happy Labor Day. At NILC, we believe that the rights of all workers, no matter where they were born, must be respected and that abusive employers must be held accountable. That’s why we fought so hard for deferred action for workers — a process that allows immigrant workers who experience or witness workplace abuse to safely cooperate with labor agency investigations without fear of retaliation based on their immigration status.
Successfully pushing the Biden administration to release this guidance last year was a huge victory and the start of a critical next chapter — ensuring that workers know that this protection is available and have the tools they need to step forward. We got to work right away.
To date, NILC has led five legal clinics, assisting over 200 workers in Illinois, New Jersey, California, and Colorado.
At each clinic, we partner with local organizations and labor unions to guide workers through the application process, providing legal advice, completing immigration forms, translations, and more. We’ve also developed toolkits and materials to support others hosting these clinics, extending our reach even further.
The stories we hear at these clinics are proof of why we needed this policy in the first place. NILC attorneys have heard from workers across the country experiencing severe abuses like wage theft, dangerous working conditions, and interference with unionizing efforts. The injustices go so far as worker deaths — from a fatal chemical leak at a poultry plant in Georgia to a farmworker run over by a truck in California’s Central Valley, where the employer forced others to keep working alongside her dead body.
These clinics go beyond providing legal assistance — they create spaces for workers to connect and organize. Together, over potluck meals, we bring workers together to build community and connection. That’s what worker power is all about.
We can’t continue this vital work without your support, friend. Will you contribute $10 today to help fund our deferred action legal clinics? Your donation will enable us to assist more workers facing severe abuses and ensure they have the opportunity to receive the protections they need.
Thank you for all you do,
Lynn Damiano Pearson
Immigration Attorney
National Immigration Law Center
