ICE Raids Pose Deeper Exploitation of Domestic Workers

Latina and other domestic workers are scrambling to stay afloat after the Los Angeles wildfires, the lingering toxic air, and the onslaught of immigration raids.

More than 16,000 homes and other structures were lost in the fires, according to CalMatters. “There is a lot of contamination, so work will not be the same until one can be certain that one will be able to work without any problem,” said a Latina domestic worker who is also a member-leader of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).

In California, there are an estimated 300,000 domestic workers, some of whom lost steady work and income when homes were consumed by raging fires in January.

Domestic work includes housekeeping, babysitting, home health support, and gardening. Of these workers, 86% are women and 51% are Latinas. The majority of domestic workers are undocumented, with 41% coming from Mexico, followed by 11% from the Philippines.

Many live and work by debris sites, where they are exposed to not only toxic conditions but also to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement on steroids, with no space seen as off-limits by the Trump administration.

“We know that migrant women workers especially are vulnerable to exploitation and health and safety violations when they're working in private homes behind closed doors”

The toxic air lingers

The fires are not raging anymore, but hazardous air remains present for months. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, this toxic air can cause eye and respiratory issues, including bronchitis, exacerbation of asthma and heart failure. Hundreds of firefighters are being monitored for possible exposure to cancer-causing chemicals.

But government regulations leave domestic workers near fire sites or actively taking part in the cleanup more vulnerable. In California, domestic workers are allowed workers compensation insurance only if they are employed full time. Yet, less than half of domestic workers, 45%, work full-time.

The Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA), a nonprofit organization that informs day laborers and domestic workers about their labor, safety, and immigration rights, conducts outreach to make sure workers have protective gear. IDEPSCA is also assessing the damage to their livelihoods. “We realized we had a huge, massive health crisis, employment crisis, and potential exploitation crisis on our hands for both the household worker and day labor community,” said IDEPSCA executive director Maegan Ortíz, adding that they continue to assess how many household workers were hired to do dangerous clean-up work, including while the fires were still burning.

The weak federal and state regulations that allow for the abuse of domestic workers is a decades-long status injustice, dating back to Congress Members in the 1930s fighting to keep Black workers in conditions of exploitation, write them out of legislative protections, and help white employers avoid accountability.

For years, domestic workers were also explicitly excluded from California occupational health and safety protections. As part of the California Domestic Workers Coalition, IDEPSCA fought this exclusion. “We know that migrant women workers especially are vulnerable to exploitation and health and safety violations when they're working in private homes behind closed doors,” Ortiz said.

California now has extended clear protections to domestic workers who are asked to clean fire debris, stating that even if a worker typically performs housekeeping work, if they do any other type of work, such as fire clean-up or reconstruction, they are covered by the state’s safety standards.

However, the monitoring of compliance with this regulation largely falls on organizers, Ortiz said. “Employers need to know that there are actually consequences if they don't do this and provide basic health and safety protection for domestic workers.”

The CHIRLA member-leader is adamant that her work and that of thousands of people matter. “Cal/OSHA (Division of Occupational Safety and Health) has to see that there should be help for domestic workers, because we also have a job that maybe some do not think has the same value as others, but it is valuable,” she said, referring to the state’s occupational safety and hazards agency. “We need that security just like any other worker,” she added.

ICE raids drive people underground

However, at the federal level and throughout some states, the government is committed to triggering insecurity.

“We didn't have the same threats or attacks on immigrant workers that we do right now with the current presidential administration,” Ortiz said. “So there's also a lot of fear that recovery is even going to take that much longer because workers are going to accept exploitative working conditions, are not going to want to come forward to ask for help or what they need because of misinformation about how that help perhaps could hurt them with the federal government, and or just because they're afraid of getting caught up in a potential ICE raid.”

Both the Los Angeles mayor and California governor have expressed some degree of support for vulnerable immigrants.

“We stand in strong opposition to ICE raids that would represent attacks on hard-working immigrant families and our public safety,” said Mayor Karen Bass in an email statement to IDAR. “City policy has kept LAPD out of immigration enforcement since 1979, and I’m going to keep it that way...I also remain committed to supporting our local nonprofit organizations who have set a nationwide standard in the fight for immigrant rights over the past decades.”

Last month, California’s Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill X12, allocating $25 million in grants for nonprofits to legally defend vulnerable residents, including immigrants, from actions taken by the federal government.

Whether this will be enough in the face of an administration targeting Brown and Black immigrants remains to be seen.