For five months in 2021, Elena lived through hell when she was forced to have a sexual relationship with her supervisor for fear of losing her job cleaning at a popular supermarket specializing in Hispanic products in the city of Victorville in San Francisco County. Bernardino.
“I had the shift from 10 at night to 3 in the morning. I got into that job because of a friend who recommended me, and the supervisor started taking us both out to dinner after work, and he didn’t show any interest in me until he switched me from the Adelanto branch to the Victorville branch.” Elena says.
“I was happy because I would no longer have to go to Adelanto. But that’s when the bullying started. I am a widow with 4 children. At that time, they were all minors; and I needed money.”
Out of fear of losing her only income, and because she is undocumented, she says she agreed to the abuse.
“He demanded that I go with him at least twice a week. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I asked him to leave me alone, because he had already achieved what he wanted. He started to get very violent and aggressive, and threatened to report me to immigration.”
Elena is 49 years old and is an immigrant from Jalisco, Mexico, who has been in the country for almost 20 years.
“With great fear, I told the owner of the cleaning company I worked for, and that is hired to clean supermarkets, what was happening, but he did nothing.”
On the contrary, he narrated that the response to his complaint was that the supervisor began to put work pressure on him.
“They were ruthless against me, and they were looking for ways to give me more work, or demand that I clean things up in more detail. They clearly couldn’t find a way to bother me.”
Later he found out that the man would no longer be his supervisor, but suddenly he would return to his job saying that he still was.
“All that time, I felt very disgusted and very frustrated. Once I asked him for permission to be absent and he wouldn’t give it to me. I didn’t take the day for fear that I was going to get fired.”
The straw that broke the camel’s back was when, after refusing to continue having relations with her supervisor and accusing him, she began to notice that when she left work, there was always a car parked outside.
“I began to be very anxious, and afraid that they would do something to me or to my son, the oldest. They had all my information.”
In the end, Elena says that she couldn’t take it anymore and quit.
“In January 2022 I filed a complaint with the California Labor Commission. They told me that they could only help me if I had used my real name to enter the job, and I said yes.
The Labor Commission assigned him a lawyer, who just sent him a letter in English that he does not understand.
“The last thing I heard from some ex-colleagues, is that my abuser had been fired from his job, but I have not heard of any sanctions against the owner of the cleaning company who knew what was happening and did not take any action.”
To date, Elena says she is frustrated.
“I feel like they did nothing for me; and that abusers get away with it, they know how to evade their crimes and come out intact.”
She stressed that she dared to denounce her abuser to the Labor Commission because a friend convinced her not to keep quiet.
“I later found out that my supervisor had already done the same thing to a younger employee.”
Elena asked The opinion Do not post your full name.
Immigrants who work as night janitors face a widespread problem: sexual abuse by their supervisors. This was established during a legislative hearing in Sacramento in 2015. DAccording to the Department of Justice, there are more than 17,000 sexual assaults in the workplace each year.
New protections
Under new policies announced by the Department of Homeland Security, undocumented immigrants who experience abuse by their employers such as wage theft and gender discrimination will be able to obtain relief from deportation when they report those violations to a government agency.
Basically the new policy guarantees a temporary work permit while workers cooperate with investigators.
Immigration lawyer Raúl Saldaña said that this new Deferred Action policy will help those workers with a work permit for two years while their complaints of abuse are under investigation.
“We are talking about cases where they are not paid enough, less than the minimum wage or do not get overtime,” he explained.
But he specified that the work permit is only for the duration of the investigation and they have to be current cases, and it can be extended while the process is in progress.
“What we want to explore is whether people who receive this migration protection can obtain a advance parole (a permit to travel outside the country) because upon returning and having legal entry, they may qualify for a family petition for residency.”
But the latter is not yet defined.
In the case of Elena, who is not a client of attorney Saldaña, he said that she could qualify to benefit from this new policy if the investigation is still ongoing.
However, he mentioned that better than that is that this mother could apply for a U Visa that is given to victims of crimes who collaborate with the authorities. This as long as the California Labor Commission gives you a certification, which is the requirement to request said relief.
For now, he mentioned that the new policy of the Department of Homeland Security gives some kind of hope, but if there is the option of advance paroleIt would be a great benefit.
“It is a limited program. Hopefully it can be extended; And we understand that some workers may be afraid to apply, because if the work permit is only for two or four years, there is a concern that their information will end up in the hands of the immigration authorities and they will later be at risk of deportation. ”.
Attorney Saldaña concluded by saying that before requesting relief under the new policy, it is very important that the immigrant hold a conversation with their immigration lawyer so that between them they can decide what is best.