Immigration threats
Immigration threats could cost California employers $10,000 per worker
The measure keeps existing retaliation protections in place, but adds a new penalty when a company uses false reports, document games or immigration threats to pressure employees.
Assemblymember Ash Kalra’s AB 2495 would expand California labor law to cover coercion through unfair immigration-related practices. The bill also sets a civil penalty that can stack fast when multiple workers are affected.
- Immigration-related coercion would become explicitly banned under California labor law.
- Civil penalties could reach $10,000 per employee for each violation.
- Existing rules already bar unfair immigration practices used to retaliate against workers.
- Recorded votes show the bill cleared the Assembly floor.
- In California, AB 2495 would make it harder for employers to use immigration status as a weapon against workers
In California, AB 2495 would make it harder for employers to use immigration status as a weapon against workers. The bill would amend Labor Code Section 1019 so unfair immigration-related practices are not just barred when they are used to retaliate against protected workplace activity, but also when they are used to coerce any person. It would also raise the cost of a violation, with civil penalties of up to $10,000 per employee for each one.
A workplace threat, not an immigration case
Current law already prohibits an employer or any other person from using unfair immigration-related practices to punish workers for asserting rights under state labor law or local employee protections. AB 2495 keeps that protection in place, but broadens it by making coercion through the same tactics unlawful too. That matters because the pressure does not have to come in the form of a firing or a formal discipline notice to shape what a worker is willing to report, challenge or demand.
The bill keeps the focus on workplace conduct, not on immigration enforcement. One example already covered by existing law is threatening to file, or actually filing, a false police report. AB 2495 would leave that example in place and extend the ban to similar conduct used to force compliance.
The price of using immigration as leverage
The practical change is the penalty. A company or other person or entity that crosses the line could face a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for each employee affected by each violation, a number that can stack quickly when the same conduct reaches more than one worker. Recorded votes show the bill cleared the Assembly floor.
What workers would notice
For immigrant workers, the bill is meant to make one threat less useful: the idea that speaking up about wages, schedules or other labor rights could bring immigration trouble down on them or their families. For employers, it draws a brighter line around conduct that already has no place in retaliation law and makes the financial risk more immediate.