CLASP

By Kaelin Rapport

Last month, California relied on incarcerated firefighters to prevent and put out fires that ravaged vast swaths of Los Angeles County. The practice of using incarcerated individuals as forced labor has existed for decades and is part of an exploitative prison labor economy that balances state budgets at the cost of Black lives.  

Involuntary Servitude and Punishment  

Carceral firefighting practices can be traced to slavery, as the use of Black labor was integral to fire management strategy, setting a violent precedent of placing the “inferior” on the frontlines of danger. California began using prisons as a source of enslaved labor for public works in the late 19th century when, as now, disproportionately warehoused Black people. Today, Black people account for 5 percent of the state population and yet comprise 28 percent of the state’s prison population. 

That this exploitation persists is due in part to a loophole in the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery “except as a punishment for crime” by removing the constitutional provision allowing jails and prisons to punish those who refuse to work. Last November, California voters failed to pass Proposition 6, which would have closed that loophole. The proposition’s failure was partially due to persistent claims that contemporary work programs like the Conservation (Fire) Camp are voluntary.  

Today, approximately 70 percent of incarcerated individuals are assigned to work, and the overwhelming majority reported feeling forced into jobs like fighting fires. Incarcerated Black laborers are more likely to either receive no pay for their labor or work in positions with lower pay than their white counterparts. This placement can be arbitrary or used as a form of punishment. Incarcerated individuals who refuse face the threat of accruing sanctions, being deprived of the few opportunities available to see family and/or reducing their sentences.  

Roughly 30 percent of the crews that combat California’s wildfires consist of incarcerated laborers, which amounts to over 1,000 incarcerated firefighters. Some are as young as 18 – the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) launched youth programs at the Growlersburg and Pinegrove Conservation Camps in 2023 and 2024.  

The Costs of Cost-Saving   

Programs like the Conservation Camps have received praise for allowing states to save hundreds of millions of dollars by using prison labor to fight fires and provide training for post-incarceration employment. Incarcerated laborers produce over $2 billion in goods and $9 billion in services in the upkeep of carceral facilities. However, this arrangement obfuscates the social costs of mass incarceration while perpetuating racial inequities and damaging local economies.  

State law allows the CDCR to pay half California’s minimum wage of $16/hour. For the highly dangerous and arduous work of clearing areas around wildfires to prevent their spread, incarcerated firefighters receive anywhere between $5.80 and $10.24 a day; an additional $1/hour when responding to emergencies; and two days off their sentence for each day spent fighting fires. These meager wages frequently go toward meeting basic hygienic needs, making phone calls, and buying additional food from the prison commissary. 

Because of their criminalized status, incarcerated laborers are excluded from federal protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the National Labor Relations, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. They are also unable to unionize. It is also essential to keep in mind that, in addition to lacking adequate compensation, incarcerated laborers are often fighting wildfires without appropriate medical care or protective equipment.  

As a result, the harm these laborers face from abysmal conditions inside prisons is mirrored in their life-saving work on the outside. Incarcerated firefighters are four times more likely to be physically injured on the job, eight times more likely to sustain an injury from smoke inhalation than professional firefighters, and largely unable to continue this work  after being released. California law bars many with criminal convictions from receiving certification as emergency medical technicians (EMTs), a requirement to become a firefighter in the state.  

Looking Forward  

California is among the 14 states maintaining fire camps that sacrifice incarcerated Black laborers for a public that has historically required their exclusion and exploitation. Being overpoliced, disparately incarcerated, and forced to work for minimal or no pay makes neither Black communities nor anyone else safer.  

The following measures would make necessary strides in de-escalating the systemic violence of coercion Black incarcerated laborers suffer via California’s carceral system and serve as a model for other states to follow:  

• Abolishing sanctions for refusing to work as an institutional practice. Incarcerated individuals’ agency should be respected, and their humanity valued beyond their capacity to generate capitalist value.  

• Incarcerated firefighters must be paid the local minimum wage. The need for their labor based on geographic location and unique climate conditions should be accounted for, in addition to exposure to lasting bodily harm.  

• Offering incarcerated firefighters the same medical and disability benefits as all firefighters for incurring an injury while working.  

• Striking down restrictions that bar individuals with a criminal conviction from gaining certification as an EMT. This exclusion remains a significant barrier to employment post-release while allowing the Los Angeles Fire Department to maintain a neutral position on the topic.  

By Lulit Shewan

In the United States, the legacy of alternative and temporary work has served to create increasingly unstable jobs that make up a highly visible but often overlooked share of the American workforce. Temporary and staffing agencies are a high-traffic, high-profit industry meant to serve individuals seeking job training for further employment opportunities. These programs largely serve communities of color, low-income Black communities, individuals without postsecondary education, and those who face barriers to “traditional” work. But the temporary staffing industry reveals yet another blatant system of discrimination reminiscent of pre-Civil Rights policies. Temporary staffing agencies create a system of precarious employment that fails to support the work needs of vulnerable groups, while systematically creating vulnerability through poor job conditions, subpar wages, labor exploitation, and racist practices. These agencies are yet another example of how employers and corporations operate at the intersection of profit accumulation and discrimination.

Temp workers are more than twice as likely to be paid poverty wages compared to workers in all industries. These workers are often paid less than their direct-hire counterparts doing the same work. Staffing and temp agencies receive a cut of the hourly fee they charge host employers, which can range from 30 percent to more than 150 percent of the wages the worker receives. Namely, Black women are also overrepresented in occupations that have a disproportionate share of temporary agency workers and are less likely to work in occupations that have a high share of independent contractors or contract workers, as compared to their white counterparts.

An estimated 13 million to 16 million U.S. workers are hired through staffing agencies annually, according to industry estimates. Despite the volume of this industry, U.S. policy poorly enforces the regulation of temp work, and this lack of regulation leaves a wide gap for the largest employers in sectors like warehousing, manufacturing, and increasingly in retail, to use temporary agencies to squeeze more labor from workers. Such poorly regulated programs create new systems of discrimination in poor Black and brown communities, where efficacy and accessibility are deficient.

Among communities of need, employment agencies are also often known to exacerbate the precarity of job programs through misleading information, manipulation, and outright discrimination. The industry is rife with stories of agencies deceiving and often lying about the terms of employment surrounding hours, pay, safety, and the process of temp-to-permanent job trajectory. Many of these agencies operate without a license, send people to jobs that don’t exist, or place them in jobs that don’t pay minimum wage. Oftentimes, these agencies charge a fee to connect individuals to companies with little or poor return. A 2022 NELP study underscoring the systematic manipulation of agencies found that 24 percent of workers reported experiencing wage theft through a staffing agency, in which they were paid less than minimum wage, not paid overtime, or not paid the proper amount for hours they worked. Exaggerating the benefits, salary, or job security of a position is also commonplace across various agencies in several states. Such agencies have also normalized the farcical presentation of temp-to-perm positions, convincing people to work under substandard conditions under the pretense that something better is on the horizon. As of 2022, NELP found that 72 percent of surveyed workers have never been hired into a permanent position from a temp job.

The underbelly of this issue, as is true for all forms of systematic oppression, is racist discrimination. Across various localities and states, a rampant trend of bigotry in hiring serves to further disparage employment opportunities for Black people in need. Many agencies often rely on this discrimination at several points in the recruiting and enlistment process. Stories of this anti-Black discrimination have seen spikes since the inception of the pandemic staffing-agency boom; employers using coded language to request non-Black people for hire, eligibility requirements being illegally skewed, assigning Black applicants to ‘less desirable’ work, or the unmitigated presence of interpersonal racism on the job.

The significant rise of discrimination is a grave concern to the growing temporary workforce that often operates as a lifeline to a very vulnerable workforce, whose threshold for workplace conditions and self-advocacy are greatly skewed due to the precarious nature of this work. Oftentimes, Black workers who attempt to fight back against these discriminatory practices not only fail to see retribution but lose accessibility to this vital work as a whole. It is also important to note that formerly incarcerated individuals are overrepresented in this labor market. These agencies, operating in tandem with employer tax credits, impel workers with criminal records to accept such jobs with low wages and poor working conditions, creating a class of disproportionately Black workers whose desperation employers can exploit.

The poor management and regulation of temporary staffing agencies is yet another facet of a racist workforce system, one that often serves to replicate the poor material conditions that Black laborers, the backbone of this country, have faced since its inception. The truth is clear: these agencies work to serve companies, not workers.

While eliminating barriers in recruitment and hiring and combatting illegal job discrimination are two of six national priorities identified by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, it is glaringly evident that these values are seldom upheld and enforced in the temporary staffing industry.

Trigger Warning: This page contains references to themes that some individuals may find distressing, including suicide and harassment. 

“The slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery.” – W. E. B. Du Bois

By Christian Collins

Black History Month’s national theme for 2025, “African Americans and Labor,” honors the symmetry between the history of Black Americans and the history of American labor. Whether paid or unpaid, voluntary or compulsory, essential or nonessential, Black labor has always been the cornerstone of the United States. The indispensable nature of Black labor has always been requisite to the development and wealth of the United States, to the point that it is valued more than the lives of the Black people performing the work. Chattel slavery of Black people was used to construct the racial capitalism that took the U.S. from British colony to global economic superpower and built the very halls that host our government. Yet within those walls resides a democracy that still views the lost lives of Black laborers as an insignificant inconvenience instead of the echoes of our founding genocidal tragedy.

Much like the current societal inequities that originate from Black people never being equally viewed as “people” by our government and society at large, the current socioeconomic inequities faced by Black workers originate in the fact that Black labor has never been viewed as “labor” but as an entitlement for American society.

Throughout American history, the word “labor” has had multiple definitions depending on the type of work performed and who is doing it. Nowhere is that more evident than in the history of labor performed by Black Americans. The slave trading network was a means in which enslaved Black people were developed into a profitable commodity. Even after chattel slavery was limited by Constitutional amendment from being applicable to all Black people to only those incarcerated by the government, Black lives were never valued as much as their labor. Black labor fueled child care, infrastructure construction, agricultural labor, artistry, and ironwork, among other essential forms of economic gain. The occupational segregation of Black workers to certain professions indicated what professions were undeserving of “fair” compensation or access to benefits, even as their work became more critical to the continued survival and growth of the United States. 

Misalignment between the value placed on Black labor versus on Black workers themselves, and the associated consequences, are still evident in the contemporary U.S.. Roughly half of all Black workers in the Southeast were agricultural wage laborers or domestic workers in the 1930s, leading to their specific exclusion from the labor rights protections administered through President Roosevelt and continued economic discrimination they experience. Black women in the United States were forced into careers as child care providers during slavery and into reconstruction. The occupational segregation of Black women continues to suppress wages of care providers even as the nation experiences a critical shortage of sector workers. Black men are overrepresented in the occupations most likely to be replaced via artificial intelligence (A.I.), such as factory labor and retail, while underrepresented in the occupations least likely to be replaced by A.I., like health and legal professionals. This trend continues a tradition of pursuing economic innovation from technological automation without regard to the human destruction it often causes. 

Black history is defined not just by the leaders who relentlessly pursued racial justice on behalf of Black communities but also by the collective loss of lives in that pursuit, and that is especially prevalent regarding Black labor. The following graphic honors the stories of Black workers who have lost their lives because of how their labor was undervalued. Their lives will live on not just in their families and communities, but also within CLASP as we continue to work toward the elimination of anti-Blackness within the labor force and broader American society.

Click the names below to interact and learn more:

Grant Conrad (1868-1887)

Echol Cole (1938-1968) and Robert Walker (1932-1968)

Adewale Ezekiel Ogunyemi (1979-2021)

Dr. Antoinette “Bonnie” Candia-Bailey (1974-2024)

The W. E. B. Du Bois quote that opened this blog came from his 1935 book Black Reconstruction in America. In this work, Du Bois argued that the Reconstruction period showcased how the autonomy and contributions of freed Black slaves were essential proof that a multiracial and working class-led democracy was possible in the United States after existing so long as a nation governed by racial hierarchies enforced through the economy and the law. The end of Reconstruction and subsequent violent terror of Jim Crow were in Du Bois’ eyes not a sign that widespread racial justice was impossible, but of the desperation of white supremacy to disrupt “the finest effort to achieve democracy for the working millions which this world had ever seen.”

The most effective weapon against racism, and therefore a governing system that embraces racial capitalism, is solidarity and collective action. Though the individuals highlighted above lost their lives due to the continued undervaluing of Black labor and the lives of Black workers, there are millions of people and communities across the country who hold similar stories of workers lost because society felt entitled only to their “labor,” not a recognition of their humanity. Black History Month is a time to celebrate the historical and current contributions of Black leaders in every aspect of American history, and to use the lessons of our past and present to build solidarity toward a true racially just democracy and economy.

“So often we overlook the work and the significance of those who are not in professional jobs, of those who are not in the so-called big jobs. But let me say to you tonight that whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity and is for the building of humanity, it has dignity and it has worth.” – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in a crisis, help is available. You can call, text, or chat the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline to reach a trained crisis counselor who can provide support in a mental health, substance use, or suicide crisis

This statement can be attributed to Lorena Roque, interim director of Education, Labor, and Worker Justice at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)

Washington, D.C. January 30, 2025 –President Trump’s moves this week to fire two members of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)’s general counsel, and the NLRB chair–coupled with his plan to shrink the federal workforce through employee buyouts–are an ominous sign, particularly for the enforcement of labor laws, the rights of workers to form unions, and for people of color and women facing discrimination. These political maneuvers are a clear abuse of power and a resounding demonstration of how the Trump Administration plans to strip our nation’s most marginalized workers of their rights and their power to organize.

Agencies such as the Department of Labor (DOL), NLRB, and EEOC that protect workers from discrimination and wage theft are left with an even further shrunken workforce to guard against unscrupulous employers. Notably, people of color and women, who typically earn lower wages than their white male counterparts, are more likely to be subject to discrimination and unfair labor practices. In recent years, the EEOC, DOL, and NLRB issued memoranda of understanding and frequently worked together to collaboratively enforce labor laws with equity in mind.

Taken together, these firings and potential buyouts are a clear strategy to reduce workplace rights by harming the enforcement of labor laws. With the firing of Gwynne Wilcox, chair of the NLRB, the Board now lacks the quorum necessary to issue decisions on appealed unfair labor practices, paving the way for bad-faith employers to stall union contracts and preventing workers from having meaningful access to remedies in instances of retaliation, illegal firing, and union-busting. The administration’s efforts are not limited to terminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, but to limiting accessibility to services and protections that workers rightfully deserve.

The first Trump Administration ordered federal agencies to cease all DEI training and banned federal agencies, contractors, and recipients of federal grants from providing employees with training related to race and gender discrimination. This administration has doubled down on anti-racial justice efforts by rolling back the Equal Opportunity Employment Act, which prohibits employment discrimination and calls on federal contractors to take affirmative action to ensure employees are treated equally, “without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.”

CLASP stands ready to fight for all people with low incomes. We call on federal and state policymakers to oppose these reckless actions and take steps to slow down and mitigate the harm while also supporting working people. In addition, we call on our partners in the racial equity and democracy advocacy space to join the effort to push back against these harmful attacks, which are an affront to our collective goals to build a more just and equitable country.

Updated Feb 14, 2025 by Priya Pandey

Originally published in 2019 by Rebecca Ullrich and updated in February 2022 by Alejandra Londono Gomez

Early childhood programs play an important role in the lives of young children and their families. But in our current political climate, families across the country are questioning whether it’s safe to attend or enroll.

In January 2025, the Trump Administration rescinded the Biden Administration’s guidelines for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection enforcement actions in certain “protected areas.” Immigration enforcement actions had previously been restricted at or near these locations, which include early childhood programs such as licensed child care, preschool, pre-kindergarten, and Head Start programs.

In response, we have updated “A Guide to Creating ‘Safe Space’ Policies for Early Childhood Programs,” which gives practitioners, advocates, and policymakers information and resources to design and implement “safe space” policies that safeguard early childhood programs against immigration enforcement, as well as protect families’ safety and privacy. The guide also includes sample policy text that early childhood providers can adapt for their programs.

Download

This statement can be attributed to Olivia Golden, interim executive director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)

Washington, D.C., January 21, 2025 – Today, the Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman issued a press statement regarding a directive published yesterday rescinding the protected areas policy. This policy has been in place in various forms since 2011. It has limited Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol activities in and near hospitals, schools, child care centers, houses of worship, food pantries, homeless and domestic violence shelters, disaster relief efforts, and other places that provide essential services. The directive ends the limitation and allows immigration enforcement agents to carry out actions in such locations constrained only by their interpretation of “common sense.”

This action could have devastating consequences for immigrant families and their children, including U.S. citizen children, deterring them from receiving medical attention, seeking out disaster relief, attending school, and carrying out everyday activities. Without the policy in place, immigration agents will be able to carry out enforcement actions in such places, which our own research has shown can result in arrests near child care programs and schools. Should ICE presence near such locations become more common, the likelihood also increases that children could witness a parent’s detention, arrest, or other encounters with ICE agents. Such exposure can harm children’s mental and physical health and negatively impact their long-term development.

This action may also have serious consequences for the health and well-being of educators and other providers who themselves are immigrants, including 1 in 5 early care and education providers. During the first Trump Administration, these providers reported being overwhelmed by the impact of anti-immigration rhetoric, the constant change in immigration policies, and heightened stress. Providers who were immigrants had additional concerns about their own families’ well-being.

Ending the protected areas policy also has a destabilizing effect on entire communities. Children who witness threats to their classmates, parents, teachers, and care providers may not be able to thrive and meet developmental milestones. Many places that families and children rely on for community and friendship, such as schools, Head Start centers, child care programs, and places of worship, could suddenly become targets, leaving the community as a whole traumatized and paralyzed by the threats of immigration enforcement. Compromising access to these supports in the midst of an onslaught of other immigration policies serves to only further undermine the safety and well-being of immigrant families and communities. And when some of us are not comfortable seeking out health care, we all are less healthy.

CLASP has worked for years to advocate for state and national policies that ensure people are able to access the supports and services they need to thrive. We have also created materials for child care providers, early childhood educators, and schools, no matter the political climate. We urge early childhood providers to consult our resource guide for ways to keep their centers as protected as possible from immigration enforcement, stay informed about their rights, and avoid giving in to the intimidation inherent in these efforts.  We also call on Congress to pass federal legislation to codify the protected areas policy, and we urge state and local policymakers to consider legislation and other policies to restrict immigration enforcement actions in these critical places.

This statement can be attributed to Olivia Golden, interim executive director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)

Washington, D.C., January 21, 2025 – On Monday night, President Trump rescinded several important immigration-related orders from the Biden Administration and signed a host of executive orders that jeopardize the safety and health of immigrant families and their children, including U.S. citizens, and threaten the economic stability of the entire country.

One order makes an unprecedented attack on the constitutional right to birthright citizenship, specifically targeting babies who don’t have at least one parent who is a legal permanent resident or U.S. citizen and ultimately creating bureaucratic challenges and delays for all families welcoming new babies. The administration’s plans will also drastically expand interior immigration enforcement measures. This includes a mass deportation agenda that prioritizes the majority of undocumented immigrants for deportation; expands detention capacity and enforcement agents; increases collaborations between local law enforcement and federal immigration agencies; denies federal funds to sanctuary jurisdictions; and limits Temporary Protected Status designations, parole authority, and work permits. Yesterday’s orders also include ramped-up border enforcement, such as measures that will militarize our border in an effort to deter asylum seekers from seeking safety.

Taken together, these directives, if fully implemented, will have devastating consequences on immigrants, their children, the communities where they live and work and volunteer, and the nation as a whole. They are clearly part of a strategy to instill fear, marginalize the millions of people affected, and destabilize their communities. We also know the cumulative effect of policies such as these has the most significant impact on children’s development, especially young children. In particular, denying the benefits of citizenship to babies in their earliest days of life can lead to long-term developmental harms and render them stateless.

We are deeply concerned about the potential for these policies to create a chilling effect on children’s participation in school and child care programs; separate even the youngest children from their parents and caregivers; cause financial instability and housing insecurity; and destabilize the workforce, particularly in child care, construction, agriculture, health care, and other sectors that rely on immigrant workers.

These orders are simply an assault on our economy, values, and democracy. And because our rapidly aging nation depends on children and young people in immigrant families for a successful, thriving future, these orders attack the well-being of everyone in the coming years and decades.  Furthermore, gutting the refugee system and shutting the door on asylum-seeking children and families undermines our American legacy as a safe haven.

CLASP stands ready to ensure that immigrants and care providers are informed about their rights and that families can prepare as much as possible and continue to meet their basic needs. We call on federal and state policymakers to oppose these reckless actions and take steps to slow down and mitigate the harm while also supporting children, families, and workers at risk. In addition, we call on our partners in the anti-poverty and children’s advocacy space to join the effort to push back against these harmful attacks, which are an affront to our collective goals to build a more just and equitable country.

# # #

See CLASP’s toolkit for early childhood stakeholders on how to keep their centers safe from immigration enforcement. CLASP also leads the Children Thrive Action Network

By Teon Hayes and Akeisha Latch

Work requirements are policies that remove or restrict access to important public benefits such as Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and housing assistance programs. Under work requirements, access to these benefits is denied if applicants cannot demonstrate that they either are completing or are exempt from a certain number of hours of work or work-related activities. Most people who use public benefits programs either already work, have a disability, and/or have significant caregiving responsibilities. 

Work requirements are one of the legacies of racist narratives such as Black people and other people of color must be coerced into work. Yet the reality is that Black people have worked tirelessly throughout history, immeasurably contributing to this country’s progress. Even so, work requirements persist, fueled by misconceptions and prejudice.  

Extensive research has shown that work requirements do not lead to better employment and economic outcomes. Instead, they create unnecessary barriers for people with low incomes,  and especially for people of color. While public benefits provide critical care and support to millions of individuals and families, they also reinforce structures of oppression. Policymakers must dismantle the racist and oppressive systems, structures, and ideologies that continue to undermine the ability of federal benefit programs to provide the necessary support to all who need it.  

Not only are work requirements propped up by racist stereotypes, but they also deepen poverty and disproportionately affect communities of color. For example, Black people receiving TANF are significantly more likely to be sanctioned than white recipients are. Black people already face disproportionate barriers in the labor force. Work requirements maintain racial inequity and punish people of color with low incomes, reinforcing the exploited relationship between poverty and Blackness.  

This timeline highlights the history and foundation of work requirements and examines the evolution of racialized narratives in both federal legislation and state actions regarding who deserves aid. 

 Embark on a historical journey to uncover how the origins of work requirements are deeply intertwined with the racist foundations of our nation.  

Click below to download the full timeline and explore:

The Racist Roots of Work Requirements in Public Benefits Programs

As we confront the prospect of a second Trump administration and the significant harmful impact of his proposed policies, CLASP stands prepared for this moment and remains committed to doing the work to slow down, minimize, and prevent or mitigate damage to families with low incomes, workers, children, immigrants, and people of color. As such, CLASP offers a virtual space for us as partners and coalitions to come together and hear from movement leaders in the broader social and economic justice ecosystem. Together we discussed how we will move forward, leverage opportunities, and take on the inherent threats to both our democracy and our collective fight against poverty, racial injustice, and other inequities.

View the recording of the event below: