Weaponizing IER: Project 2025 Wants the DOJ to Investigate Employers Who Hire Immigrant Workers
Project 2025's DOJ chapter calls for 'aggressive enforcement of the immigration laws within the Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) of the Civil Rights Division' to combat alleged discrimination against U.S. citizens in favor of foreign workers. This shifts IER's mission from protecting immigrant workers from employer abuse to targeting employers who hire them, chilling organizing and suppressing wages across industries.
Project 2025's DOJ chapter claims it wants to prevent discrimination against American workers, but the actual mechanism is weaponizing the Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) of the Civil Rights Division. IER enforces the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. § 1324b), which currently protects work-authorized individuals from citizenship-status discrimination and unfair documentary practices. By calling for 'aggressive enforcement' to root out alleged preferences for foreign workers, Project 2025 would flip IER into a tool to investigate and penalize employers who hire immigrant workers—particularly those with temporary work visas. The result: employers will be reluctant to hire any non-citizen, driving immigrant workers into the underground economy where wage theft and unsafe conditions flourish. This enforcement-first approach does nothing to actually raise wages for American workers. Instead, it drives immigrant workers further into the shadows, where they are even more easily exploited by bosses who threaten to call ICE when workers try to organize. The real solution is the opposite: clear pathways to citizenship and robust enforcement of wage and hour laws for all workers, regardless of status. When workers know their rights and are protected from retaliation, they can demand fair pay, overtime, and safe conditions. That raises labor standards for everyone. IER should be protecting immigrant workers from exploitation, not turned into a tool for union busting and wage suppression.
The humanitarian alternative
The administration should reverse course by: (1) restoring the NLRB to a full five-member board with a functioning general counsel committed to enforcing the NLRA; (2) issuing clear guidance that DOJ's civil rights division will not coordinate with ICE to target immigrant workers; (3) reinstating the DOL's worker-classification rule to ensure misclassified immigrant workers are covered by wage and hour laws; and (4) pursuing sectoral bargaining and works council models that give all workers—regardless of immigration status—a seat at the table.
Original source — excerpted
project2025 Project 2025 ch. 18: Department of Labor (pp 601-603)"— 568 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise correct erroneous decisions, provide clarity, and align Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) decisions with the law. l At a minimum, pursue through rulemaking—and in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security where appropriate—the promulgation of every rule related to immigration that was issued during the Trump Administration. Such rulemakings include guidance on continuances in immigration court cases, eligibility for asylum, and other related matters. However, the DOJ should not stop there: It should continually evaluate its authorities and operational reality within the immigration court system and promulgate regulations accordingly. l Commit sufficient resources to the adjudication of cases in the immigration court system in different environments (for example, in the context of the Migrant Protection Protocols). l Pursue proactive litigation to advance the federal government’ s interests in areas where erroneous precedent curtails authorities provided by Congress (for example, by pursuing the overturning of the Flores Settlement Agreement). l Pursue aggressive enforcement of the im…"