The Obama administration has included two important changes with respect
to U and T visas for victims of crime in the workplace and trafficking
as part of its administrative reform, by expanding the DOL’s U visa
certification protocol to include three additional qualifying criminal
activities, and committing to certification of T visas. It has also established
an interagency task force to protect immigrant workers from employers
who exploit their immigration status when they seek to exercise their
workplace rights.
The DOL has posted a fact sheet here: http://www.dol.gov/dol/fact-sheet/immigration/u-t-visa.htm.
The fact sheet specifies that these changes will be enacted in 2015.
Among the DOL’s changes include:
• Expand its existing U visa certification program by certifying
requests that include: extortion, fraud in foreign labor contracting,
and forced labor. (Although forced labor is not specifically enumerated
in the U visa statute, it should be considered substantially similar to
involuntary servitude. See, e.g. United States v. Bradley, 390 F.3d 145
(1st Cir. 2004)).
• Certify applications for trafficking victims seeking T visas when
human trafficking activity is detected in the course of the Wage and Hour
Division’s workplace investigations. The DOL will publish a Federal
Register notice delegating authority to issue T visa certifications and
will amend procedures and protocol to reflect these changes.
The Obama administration has also announced the establishment of an interagency
working group addressing consistent enforcement of federal labor, employment,
and labor laws, which will seek to ensure that federal enforcement authorities
are not used to undermine worker protections through the use of immigration
authorities in labor disputes, and strengthening processes for staying
the removal and providing temporary work authorization for undocumented
workers asserting workplace claims. See: http://www.dol.gov/dol/fact-sheet/immigration/interagency-working-group.htm.
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