NY eyes migrant workers’ wage theft claims. $114K hangs in the balance.

Jackson Torres Cabello has worked in various capacities for a Queens-based construction firm since arriving in the United States from Ecuador in 2016, averaging nearly 60 hours a week.

The trouble, Cabello alleges in a complaint to the New York state Labor Department, is that he hasn’t been paid for hundreds of hours he put in.

Cabello, 45, said he complained about the unpaid wages until May, when he was terminated. He estimates his employer owes him tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid overtime.

“I am unemployed," Cabello said over email. "I cannot cover the expenses. It is traumatic for me because my three minor children depend on me in Ecuador.”

Cabello is among two dozen construction workers from South and Central America who are pressing unpaid wage claims against six local construction firms. They're getting help from the advocacy group Workers Justice Project, which staged demonstrations outside of each company’s office last week.

Aaron Cagwin, a spokesperson for the state Department of Labor, said the agency had received wage theft claims against all the companies cited by the advocacy group, which alleges that the workers are collectively owed $114,000.

“These claims are either under review or under investigation by our Division of Labor Standards, so we cannot provide further details at this time,” Cagwin said.

Ceprine Construction, Cabello’s former employer, did not respond to questions about the allegations. Calls to four of the other firms — KEP Construction, G&B Construction NY Corp., Francisco Giron LLC and Franklin Mauricio Chuquiguanga — were not returned. The owner of SK Group Construction told Gothamist that the wage theft claims lodged against his business were untrue.

While underpaid immigrant labor is an age-old problem, particularly among workers who lack legal immigration status, a new federal tool is available for those pressing claims.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security last year announced new guidelines allowing migrant workers with wage theft claims to request “deferred action” — a commitment from the federal government not to pursue deportation against them while their claims are investigated. Under the guidelines, workers would also receive work permits so that they could work legally.

Ligia Guallpa, executive director of the Workers Justice Project, said wage theft puts migrant workers in a precarious position, “without the ability to pay rent [or] put food on the table.” The advocacy group said the two dozen workers in the current case includes those without legal immigration status.

“We're seeing a trend where construction companies who are building the city of New York are building luxurious buildings across the city by exploiting and underpaying workers," said Guallpa.

Attorneys and immigrant rights advocates said the federal change is significant. Isabel Niño-Rada, a law associate at Pu-Folkes Law Firm in Jackson Heights, said the shift has prompted “a lot of word of mouth” within the legal community. Her own firm has secured deferred action for two clients, with 27 other cases pending, she said.

"I think it makes a huge difference in the individuals' lives for them to be able to be employed legally and for them to know that they won't be deported just because they're speaking up and fighting for their rights," Niño-Rada said.

The process requires workers in New York to file their complaints with the state Department of Labor, which in turn must submit a “statement of interest” with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security before the federal agency can determine whether an individual merits deferred action.

“Noncitizen workers should never be afraid to report exploitation in the workplace or fear retaliatory actions from an abusive employer,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement earlier this year. “No employer is above the law. DHS will work with our law enforcement partners to hold those who prey on the vulnerability of migrants accountable and provide protection to those who come forward to report abuse.”

Katherine Tichacek, a spokesperson for the department, said it would not comment on the cases of the workers organized by the Workers Justice Project.

According to a DHS press release in January, more than 1,000 "noncitizen workers who were victims of, or witnesses to, a violation of labor rights” nationwide have benefited from deferred action since it was implemented in 2023. Tichacek said the agency does not have a state-by-state breakdown of deferred action figures.

In New York, Attorney General Letitia James has routinely announced enforcement actions against employers accused of wage violations, some pf which totaled in the tens of thousands of dollars. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office has also pursued such claims, calling itself as “a safe place for undocumented immigrants to report crime,” including via its Worker Protection Unit Helpline.

Reached by phone this week, SK Group Construction owner Sohail Khalid acknowledged that the three workers named in the complaint had worked for him until 2022, but rejected the allegation that he owed them more than $10,000 in back wages.

Khalid said protesters had showed up outside his Hollis home in his absence, “without any notification,” which caused his two daughters to feel “traumatized.”

He said he had never received a Jan. 9 letter from the Workers Justice Project stating that he owed one worker $4,620 in unpaid wages.

“That’s not true,” Khalid said. The project shared a copy of the letter with Gothamist.

Among the other workers claiming wage theft is María Estefany Chávez Velasco, 28, who is seeking $2,380 in unpaid wages.

Velasco said she is without legal immigration status and arrived in the United States from El Salvador in 2021. In 2023, she secured work as a drywall finisher at G&B Construction. She's part of what labor advocates say is a growing wave of women who are entering the industry in recent years, a trend that has been encouraged by both New York government officials and the Biden administration.

Initially, she said, the work “was difficult, but as time went by I learned to do the job better and better.” Every two weeks, she said, she received her wages without fail.

“Until there came a time when they began to fall behind with the payment,” she said in Spanish.

Cabello, the worker at the Queens construction who arrived from Ecuador in 2016, said he stayed at the same company "out of fear" and because he doesn’t speak English — even despite being owed pay.

“All those things made me stay there,” he said.