Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Employers have used immigration laws to stifle worker rights, including having their own undocumented workers arrested in order to blunt labor organizing, a union report said.

The AFL-CIO, American Rights at Work and the National Education Law Project concluded in the report that an increased federal focus in recent years on enforcing immigration laws has interfered with the protections of labor rights for workers from abroad.

“The single-minded focus on immigration enforcement” has allowed employers “to profit by employing workers who are terrified to complain about substandard wages, unsafe conditions, and lack of benefits, or to demand their right to bargain collectively,” according to the report. The Obama administration “has the opportunity to reset the balance between immigration enforcement and labor enforcement.”

Immigration prosecutions rose from 2006 to 2008 as the Department of Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies increased enforcement actions at workplaces, the report said.

High-profile incidents included the December 2006 raid on beef and pork seller Swift & Co., which led to the arrest of 1,300 workers on immigration violations, costing the company $45 million to $50 million in lost production and other expenses, the report said.

Federal workplace protections apply to immigrants, including those not authorized to work in the U.S., according to the groups.

A Labor Dispute

The government “has been too quick to embrace workplace enforcement actions at the behest of employers” where “a labor dispute was in progress,” the report said. It also criticizes federal immigration agents for monitoring picket lines for undocumented workers.

The report calls on federal immigration agents to revive a policy of not interfering in workplace labor disputes, and proposes that immigration officials should report workplace violations that they observe. It also proposes immigration agents be required to document the sources of any tips they get and reject those from employers who refuse to identify themselves.

To contact the reporter on this story: Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington at hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 27, 2009 00:00 EDT