ICE employees say agency canceled their union but still collected dues from them.
In July 2016, the Justice Department’s Office of Special Counsel announced that it had opened an investigation of ICE following a complaint by ICE Employees for Justice. The complaint said ICE workers’ paychecks were being withheld by the agency and that the Department of Justice was complicit.
The complaint was eventually closed in July 2017, after the Office of Special Counsel determined it was unable to prove it was illegal.
“The investigation did not substantiate OSC’s allegations against the agency and OSC has no plans to undertake a follow-up investigation,” the Justice Department said in a statement at the time, adding the Office of Special Counsel “has no further action to file against the agency.”
On Friday, after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the workers, the Justice Department said in a statement that “the Department of Justice will not participate in the collective bargaining process of the members of ICE’s EEO-1 Agency Employees as they did not seek to unionize.”
