DENVER, Colorado — Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and worker advocacy groups are sounding the alarm about a new trend of employers threatening to report workers to immigration authorities as retaliation for reporting wage theft or other workplace abuses.
The warnings come after a recent case in Colorado where an employer followed through on such threats, resulting in a worker’s deportation after he filed a wage theft claim.
“Unfortunately, this employer took action against him in retaliation where he called ICE and was able to send them back to his home in Latin America,” said Mayra Juárez-Denis, executive director of Centro de Los Trabajadores, a North Denver organization that has protected worker rights for years…