When unscrupulous employers fail to uphold labor standards for certain groups of workers, like undocumented immigrants, all U.S. workers suffer the consequences. By driving down labor standards to the lowest common denominator, it becomes harder to enforce laws and standards even for native-born workers.

In this report we focus on the balance between the DOL's need to protect workers' rights and ICE's mandate to enforce immigration laws. We examine how ICE's failure to fully participate in this balancing act has contributed to the creation of perverse incentives against complying with fair wage and hour laws, OSHA requirements, and labor laws that protect collective bargaining rights.

This report includes several case studies that illuminate the multiple ways ICE and the DOL could partner with each other and with other agencies to raise the floor on core labor standards.

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