This marked negative effect on safety of targeting undocumented migrants was identified in a 2021 research paper, When labor enforcement and immigration enforcement collide: Deterring worker complaints worsens workplace safety.

Researchers from the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research examined data from the ‘Secure Communities’ partnership between federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and local law enforcement from the 2010s. They document dramatic negative impacts of immigration enforcement on worker health and safety.

Looking at workplaces with a high percentage of Hispanic workers, they show that complaints to the federal safety enforcement agency OSHA dropped off dramatically while injuries rose significantly – with safety standards for all workers also dropping.

In workplaces with many Hispanic workers, the heightened ICE immigration enforcement activity saw a 50 per cent drop in complaints to OSHA. In workplaces with few Hispanic workers, a less marked impact was observed, with a single figure drop in complaints.

The ICE clampdown also led to much poorer compliance with OSHA regulations in workplaces with Hispanic workers. The number of safety violations in workplaces with many Hispanic workers increased by 150 per cent after the ICE immigration enforcement clampdown. The increase was 20 per cent in workplace with few Hispanic workers.

The authors found unions had a protective effect, with unionised workers largely shielded from the increase in barriers to complain about health and safety. Increased ICE workplace activities led to a decrease in safety complaints in over 50 per cent of all workplaces without unions, compared to under five per cent in those with unions.

Workplace injuries increased by almost 30 per cent in non-union workplaces, compared to less than 10 per cent in unionised workplaces.

“Our finding that unionised workers appeared immune to the increase in barriers to complain provides new evidence of how unions facilitate the enforcement of labour regulations,” the authors note.

They conclude: “We provide descriptive evidence that Hispanic workers face higher barriers to complain: workplaces with large shares of Hispanic workers have higher injury rates but issue fewer complaints to OSHA. We show that workers’ willingness to complain causally affects the job hazards they face. At workplaces with large shares of Hispanic workers, counties’ participation in an immigration enforcement programme reduced complaints to OSHA, but increased injuries.

“Our results highlight that using complaints to direct regulatory enforcement can exacerbate existing inequalities when workers face differential barriers to complain.”

Further information

• Amanda M Grittner and Matthew S Johnson. When labor enforcement and immigration enforcement collide: Deterring worker complaints worsens workplace safety, Upjohn Institute Working Paper 21-353, 2021. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. www.upjohn.org
• Immigration Enforcement Undermines Worker Health and Safety, Stephen Knight and Amira Sade-Moodie, The Machine Guard blog, 11 July 2025.
• Immigration Enforcement Undermines Worker Health and Safety, Stephen Knight, Confined Space, 17 July 2025.
• www.hazards.org/unioneffect

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DIVIDE AND KILL

President Trump’s immigration raids on workplaces and plan to expel millions of undocumented workers has another unwelcome consequence – it makes work more dangerous for all Americans.