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‘Don’t share personal information’: Labor Unions Ready Immigrant Workers for Trump Deportations 2.0

With safety deportation plans and 'Know Your Rights' workshops, labor organizations and workers’ centers are offering critical resources to their immigrant members.

Amir Khafagy

Jan 29, 2025

Photo courtesy Laundry Workers Center.

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Don’t answer any questions without a lawyer. 

Don’t open the door to ICE if they don’t have a judicial warrant. 

Make a plan with your family in case you are suddenly arrested and detained.

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This is just some of the advice immigrant workers have been getting at workers’ centers and labor unions this past week. The organizations have begun preparing their members for the possibility of being deported following President Trump’s promise to deport 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States. 

Starting this January, Rosanna Rodriguez, co-executive director of the Laundry Workers Center, has been holding ‘Know Your Rights’ workshops with her organization’s mostly immigrant members. She told Documented that members were very concerned about what the Trump administration had in store for them. 

“Our members are nervous and they are looking for answers,” she said. “There is a sense of uncertainty. No one knows what’s going to happen.”

Also read: Trump’s Executive Orders Create a Hostile Environment for Immigrant Communities

To dispel any misinformation that may be circulating, Rodriguez believes that the best way they can help prepare their members is by informing them on what their rights are and how they could prepare in case of arrest. “We don’t want to be afraid, it is not the first time we have been through this and we are very resistant, but we have to be ready and prepared,” she said.

Following Trump’s election victory in November, unions such as 32BJ have also been distributing ‘Know Your Rights’ leaflets to union members in the event of any interactions with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. As a benefit of their union contract, members of 32BJ are given access to the union’s ‘Building Service Legal Services Fund,’ an employer-funded benefit that provides free access to lawyers to help members and their covered family members in a number of services including: applying for citizenship, renewing green cards, filing asylum claims, registering for Temporary Protected Status, renewing their DACA status, relative petitions, and adjustment of status claims. 

The 32BJ union told Documented they are also actively training all their staff across all districts, from Boston to Miami, on what to do should one of their members need support. Under some circumstances, 32BJ union staff will accompany members to ICE check-ins.

The New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO (NYC CLC), which comprises 300 local unions in the city that represent over 1 million workers, has been disseminating a toolkit developed by the national AFL-CIO labor federation to its affiliated unions on how unions could defend their undocumented members. 

Also read: Trump’s Mass Deportation Plan: How Will It Work?

Although they began rolling out the toolkit in January in anticipation of the new administration, it is not the first time the AFl-CIO has stepped up to the plate to defend immigrant workers. During the AFL-CIO convention in 2022, the labor federation passed a resolution committing to redoubling its efforts to win a path towards citizenship for all immigrant workers. 

Throughout the city, NYC CLC has also been leading ‘Know Your Rights’ workshops to help best prepare union leadership and members. “Organized labor is not new to this fight,” said Xiomara Loarte, community outreach director for NYC CLC. “We know that an injury to one is an injury to all.”

Among the many things labor organizations are doing to prepare their most vulnerable members is advising them to settle their affairs in advance and make an emergency deportation safety plan in case they are suddenly detained by ICE. 

The emergency plan advises members to organize their personal documents that they can carry with them, plan for childcare in case of sudden ICE detention, make contact with a lawyer beforehand, plan for medical needs such as writing down crucial medical information to carry with them, and grant a loved one power to access their finances and make financial decisions on their behalf. 

Although it’s not always the easiest conversation to have, Loarte stresses that making an emergency deportation safety plan is one of the best ways to prepare.

“It’s not just about knowing your rights, it’s also about encouraging working families to have those hard conversations and think through what it means to be prepared,” she said. “It is one thing to know your rights but it’s an entirely different thing to be hit by a crisis and not have a plan in mind.”

In addition to holding ‘Know Your Rights’ and deportation plan training, since the election Make The Road New York, an immigrant-led community organization, has been advising workers seeking workplace-related legal help not to apply for a temporary reprieve from deportation otherwise known as deferred action as it requires workers to submit personal information to the federal government. 

Also read: U Visa: Eligibility for Adjusted Immigrant Status By Witnessing a Crime

Beginning in 2021, the National Labor Relations Board announced that they would be seeking immigration relief such as deferred action, parole, continued presence, U or T status, a stay of removal, or other relief to undocumented workers who witnessed or were victims of unfair labor practices and had their rights violated under the National Labor Relations Act. 

Although deferred action provides temporary protection from deportation and eligibility for work authorization, Trump’s promise to initiate the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” has Make The Road New York and other organizations fearing that the Trump administration could possibly use the information against those who apply. 

“We stopped applying for deferred action by the end of November because you have to give all your information to the federal government,” said Cristobal Gutierrez, lead attorney at Make the Road New York’s Workplace Justice Project. “There is caution because the federal government is all under Trump. So you have to think twice.”

Still, Gutierrez urges undocumented workers to reach out to organizations like his for legal help on their individual cases. “What we recommend, truly, is going to an attorney,” he said. “This is a heightened moment and you should be extra careful.” 

Rodriguez of the Laundry Workers Center also advised her members against applying for deferred action. 

For immigrant workers who are confused and eager to seek out assistance and resources, Loarte of NYC CLC urges them to reach out to labor organizations like hers.

“The NYC CLC recognizes that immigrant workers are in our membership, in our rank in file, in our movement and we are prepared to support workers in this fight,” she said. “Any immigrant worker in New York City who is a member of a union or connected to a workers’ rights group needs to know they could go to their union or organizations.”

For more resources, the AFL-CIO has launched a toolkit for immigrant workers. More information can be found here to learn more about how to make an emergency deportation safety plan. 

I hope you appreciated this article. If you did, I wanted to ask if you’d consider supporting Documented’s journalism, which centers and serves immigrant communities in a way that few other media outlets do. Make a donation at this critical time.

Amir Khafagy

Amir Khafagy is an award-winning New York City-based journalist. He is currently a Report for America corps member with Documented. Much of Amir's beat explores the intersections of labor, race, class, and immigration.

@AmirKhafagy91

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