Paul DeCamp Quoted in KQED on Rise in Employer ICE Threats Against Workers

For employers in construction, hospitality, in-home care, and other industries with large noncitizen workforces, threatening to report a worker to federal immigration authorities in retaliation for a wage or labor complaint is illegal, yet advocates say the practice is becoming more common as immigration enforcement intensifies.

In a recent article by KQED, the publication examined the rise in California employer threats to report workers to immigration authorities in retaliation for wage and labor complaints. Paul DeCamp, Member of the Firm of Epstein Becker Green and counsel to employers on wage and hour litigation and compliance, and a former Administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, discussed why supervisors sometimes make these threats despite their illegality.

The article traced how California's Labor Commissioner's Office has received nearly 200 immigration-related retaliation complaints since 2025, and how worker advocates in industries such as construction, hospitality, and in-home care describe employers threatening to call ICE to silence workers who report wage theft or unsafe conditions. DeCamp offered the employer-side context for why these threats occur despite being unlawful.

“If a supervisor gets annoyed, perhaps because the workers are talking about unionizing or they’re complaining about working conditions, the supervisor, in an attempt to try to take control of the situation, may make a threat like this, which of course is illegal. But the supervisor may not understand that or may think that the workers would be afraid to do anything about the threat,” DeCamp said.

Get in Touch

To discuss how to train supervisors and structure compliance practices to avoid unlawful immigration-related retaliation against employees who raise wage and hour concerns, contact Paul DeCamp at PDeCamp@ebglaw.com.