During the Trump administration, ICE performed several “workplace enforcement actions,” raiding workplaces and arresting hundreds of unauthorized foreign workers.

These raids made headlines. But did they make labor markets more fair for American workers? By targeting the workers instead of the employers, ICE makes politically convenient headlines for a day — and meanwhile, employers simply replace the unauthorized workers with more unauthorized workers.

In 2021, the Biden administration changed course. In a memo to the heads of ICE, CBP, and USCIS, Secretary Alexander Mayorkas wrote that DHS would focus on employers that

engage in illegal acts ranging from the payment of substandard wages to imposing unsafe working conditions and facilitating human trafficking and child exploitation. Their culpability compels the intense focus of our enforcement resources. In addition, unscrupulous employers harm each worker competing for a job. By exploiting undocumented workers and paying them substandard wages, the unscrupulous employers create an unfair labor market. They also unfairly drive down their costs and disadvantage their business competitors who abide by the law.

Secretary Mayorkas instructed the subagencies to “cease mass worksite operations” and to consider requests from the Department of Labor that ICE dismiss removal actions against people who were cooperating with Labor investigations against unscrupulous employers.