WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Monday advanced a rollback of Biden-era labor protections that had shielded undocumented construction and agricultural workers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement action while federal workplace safety investigations were ongoing. The measure passed along a strict party-line vote of 53–47, with no Republican defections and all present Democrats voting in opposition.

The repeal targets a 2022 memorandum of understanding between the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration and ICE that had established coordination protocols preventing deportation proceedings from interfering with active worker injury or wage-theft complaints. Critics of the rollback — including labor unions, construction industry advocacy groups, and several Democratic attorneys general — argue the change will have an immediate chilling effect on worker safety reporting across high-risk sectors.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) framed the vote as a matter of executive authority and border enforcement consistency, arguing the Biden-era protections amounted to an informal 'sanctuary workplace' policy that undermined the administration's immigration mandate. 'No federal agency should be in the business of telling ICE where it cannot go,' Thune said from the Senate floor ahead of the vote.

The development comes as advocates for undocumented construction workers have been raising alarms for weeks over what they describe as an ICE surge targeting job sites in major metropolitan areas including New York, Houston, and Los Angeles. A roofer's account published earlier this week describing the fear paralyzing undocumented tradespeople went viral on social media, amplifying pressure on senators in competitive states. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) read portions of the account aloud during floor debate, calling the vote 'a green light to exploit the most vulnerable workers in America.'

The White House is expected to sign the measure into law within days. The AFL-CIO and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network announced jointly Monday evening that they would pursue legal challenges in federal district courts in Washington D.C. and the Ninth Circuit, arguing the repeal violates the Administrative Procedure Act and existing OSHA statutory obligations. Several state attorneys general from California, Illinois, and New York signaled they would file parallel suits by week's end.