(The Center Square) – Julie Su, President Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Labor, instructed state employees not to obey federal immigration laws when she headed California’s Labor Standards Enforcement Division under former Gov. Jerry Brown.
Su sent two memos to her then-employees instructing them not to comply with requests from ICE and Border Patrol agents, one in May and July 2017. In her July 7, 2017 memo obtained by The Center Square, she wrote : “A worker’s immigration status is irrelevant in determining whether an employer has violated state labor laws.”
Federal law enacted by Congress states that illegal entry into the United States is, with some exceptions, a federal crime requiring deportation. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas changed several aspects of how agents should or should not enforce the law, prompting several states to file lawsuits.
Su also said in the memo, “There is no doubt that the presence of federal immigration officers in our offices would significantly impair workers’ willingness to report labor law violations” and would cause “significant harm” to workers.
Tom Homan, ICE’s former acting director in the Trump administration, criticized her nomination, saying it was another attempt by the Biden administration not to enforce federal immigration laws.
“Once again, this administration is taking steps NOT to enforce the laws passed by Congress,” he told The Center Square. “A major attraction for illegal immigration is jobs. DHS Secretary Mayorkas has already barred ICE from conducting workplace enforcement actions and now directs DOL not to share information about companies that hire illegal aliens. This is abhorrent and with child trafficking and child labor at an all-time high due to the open border, these children are becoming harder to find and rescue.”
Before issuing the memo, she commented on it opposition on federal immigration laws in a chapter she wrote in a 2000 book on INS and the “criminalization of immigrants.” In it she wrote: “By attacking [illegal foreign nationals] As for their immigration status, the US government ensures they have no legal protections and justifies their exploitation.”
She also criticizes the Immigration and Naturalization Service staff in this chapter for enforcing federal immigration law. (INS was later incorporated into the Department of Homeland Security after 9/11.) She wrote, “The INS war on migrant workers is creating a fully exploited and exploitable workforce serving the interests of corporate profits.” While people as people without Papers and therefore defined as ‘illegal’ capital has eluded such characterization.”
Su’s nomination process met with fierce opposition, including from her home state.
A coalition of Californians in the group Stand Against Su is calling on the Senate to oppose their nomination because “thousands of workers have already suffered under Su’s anti-business agenda.” They argue in online and billboard campaigns and on her website that Sue oversaw the largest tax fraud case in California history as secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency under Governor Gavin Newsom.
Under Newsom, the agency that oversaw them paid $400 million in fraudulent unemployment benefits to California inmates. The state later rented a former federal prosecutor serving as the special counsel investigating the largest employment fraud in California history. The fraud was initially believed to total $19 billion, but later increased to $40 billion, including fraudulent payments to death row inmates and deceased residents.
The state unemployment insurance fund deficit is now over $18 billion, leading the state to tax employers up to several hundred dollars per worker to cover losses, in what companies refer to as the “Su tax.”
Su also championed AB 5, the controversial law that requires independent contractors in California to be full-time employees. When it went into effect, it immediately led to significant layoffs, a brain drain, and lawsuits from Lyft, Uber, and others.
Su promised to test and investigate companies and workers who failed to comply. saying AB 5 “will be a role model for the country.”
She was also criticized by Republicans in the House for not knowing how she voted on an important labor proposal in California.
When newly elected Rep. Kevin Kiley, a former state legislator who sued Gov. Gavin Newsom over lockdown policies, asked June 7 how she voted on Proposition 22, she said she didn’t know. California voters overwhelmingly approved the voting measure to exempt Uber and Lyft from AB 5. Testifying before the House Education and Labor Committee, Su said she couldn’t remember how she voted on it.
Kiley tweeted In his questioning, he said: “Julie Su originally claimed she could not remember voting on Prop. 22, a voting measure that presented Californians with the most momentous labor election proposal passed when Su was CA Secretary of Labor. She later refused to answer the question. False testimony before Congress should be disqualifying.”
Su also responded to questions in an argumentative manner, prompting Rep. Virginia Foxx to do so questions“Do you understand the failure to provide full answers?” [to oversight requests] may result in the Committee taking coercive action?” Su replied, “Yes,” prompting Foxx to state, “Good!” You know that word.”
Kiley too pointed out that the US has seen a 70% increase in child labor since 2018. At her Senate confirmation hearing in April, she was asked if she had raised concerns about child labor before her White House nomination, and she replied, “I don’t know the answer to that question.” When Kiley asked the same question asked, she replied, “I don’t know.”
By Bethany Blankley | The contributor at Center Square