Oregon labor agency warns employers: Threatening to call ICE on workers is illegal

Threatening to call federal immigration authorities on employees after they raised concerns about their working conditions is considered illegal retaliation, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries is warning employers. 

Oregon law prohibits employers from discriminating or retaliating against workers because of their national origin, which includes actions that target workers based on their immigration status, ethnicity, language, ancestry or cultural traits. 

While the federal government is cracking down on immigration enforcement across the country, the state of Oregon has policies protecting people living and working in Oregon regardless of their immigration status. State agencies including the labor bureau and Oregon Department of Justice have pledged to take “aggressive action” to enforce the law in these cases.

The agency did not immediately specify how many complaints it received involving threats to call Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. 

“Intimidating and silencing workers who simply want to be treated fairly by threatening or actually calling immigration officials on them is one of the most egregious forms of retaliation,” agency commissioner Christina Stephenson said in a statement July 16. 

Stephenson said the bureau will prioritize cases where employees have faced this type of retaliation and use “every enforcement tool” to make sure employers are held accountable. 

Reyna Lopez, the executive director of Oregon’s farmworker union — Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste — said the organization is grateful to have a state labor industry that stands firm against retaliation. 

“For too long, employers have weaponized the fear of deportation to silence workers speaking out against unsafe, unjust and illegal conditions,” Lopez said. “This conduct has only grown worse under the federal administration’s aggressive deportation policies.”