Get real. These drivers are illegal aliens. Uber and Lyft broke the law by hiring them. The drivers should be deported—and the executives that hired them need to be arrested for violating Federal law—it is illegal to hire an illegal alien.
“Having arrived in the United States at age 17 without authorization, Pedro closed the app and set course for home in the San Fernando Valley, knowing it would be the last time he’d work for the rideshare app.
“From that moment, I knew that these gig jobs are not secure,” Pedro, 37, said in Spanish. He is referred to only by his first name to protect his privacy. “The next day they can say, ‘That’s it for you,’ especially for people like me who are ‘illegally’ working.”
Pedro drove for Uber and Lyft for about four years, he said, and completed about 22,000 trips. Like many undocumented people in California and across the country, he worked for rideshare companies as the app-based gig economy started to take off.
Early on, workers only needed a valid driver’s license, and many used their Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers — which are available to those without Social Security numbers — to work for the platforms and pay income taxes.
They broke the law for four years. Now they are crying they got caught. I do not cry for rapists, bank robbers or those that assault people. So, why cry for a criminal from another country?
These LA undocumented drivers helped build Uber and Lyft. Now they’re being left behind
by Vanessa Arredondo, LA Public Press, 05/30/2025 https://lapublicpress.org/2025/05/undocumented-drivers-uber-lyft-left-behind/
Pedro was dropping off a rideshare passenger in Altadena in 2019, when he received a notification from Uber that this would be his last job with the company unless he could verify his personal information through documentation like a Social Security number.
Having arrived in the United States at age 17 without authorization, Pedro closed the app and set course for home in the San Fernando Valley, knowing it would be the last time he’d work for the rideshare app.
“From that moment, I knew that these gig jobs are not secure,” Pedro, 37, said in Spanish. He is referred to only by his first name to protect his privacy. “The next day they can say, ‘That’s it for you,’ especially for people like me who are ‘illegally’ working.”
Pedro drove for Uber and Lyft for about four years, he said, and completed about 22,000 trips. Like many undocumented people in California and across the country, he worked for rideshare companies as the app-based gig economy started to take off.
Early on, workers only needed a valid driver’s license, and many used their Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers — which are available to those without Social Security numbers — to work for the platforms and pay income taxes.
But that changed after 2018, when Uber announced it would start running background checks on drivers each year. Soon after, Pedro stopped working for the apps and returned to landscaping, a skill he developed before coming to the U.S. He now works long hours in the sun planting trees, mowing lawns and installing stone pathways under the supervision of a boss. He said he misses the flexibility of gig work and being in charge of his own hours.
“Before, I could grab coffee with a friend in the middle of the day, but not anymore,” Pedro said. “That’s just how it is, but I have to continue working to take care of my child.”
Pedro’s experience illustrates a broader challenge: Undocumented workers helped build the gig economy, but their future in it remains uncertain — even as legislators revive efforts to guarantee gig workers more rights and protections.
In February, Democratic lawmakers backed by the Services Employees International Union (SEIU) introduced Assembly Bill 1340, a measure that would allow drivers for rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft to unionize and collectively bargain for better pay and benefits. The union estimates the measure, if passed, would cover more than half a million people working as rideshare drivers in California. Today, under Prop. 22, these drivers are treated as independent contractors, exempting them from the benefits afforded to part- and full-time employees, like overtime and paid sick leave.
Advocates said the new bill, which is still being drafted, could be an opportunity to ensure undocumented immigrant rights are protected in the gig economy for the first time by giving migrant drivers a voice at the bargaining table. The measure does not specifically mention undocumented workers, but according to state labor laws, all workers in California, regardless of immigration status, can form and join labor unions, meaning undocumented drivers would also have a stake in bargaining efforts should the law pass.
While they are barred from working for some of the larger tech companies, including Uber and Lyft, undocumented rideshare and delivery drivers who work for smaller competitors would be eligible for union and bargaining rights as independent contractors under AB 1340.
Jeannette Zanipatin, director of policy and advocacy at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, said AB 1340 would benefit these undocumented workers. The legislation was recently amended and ordered to be read a third time before it is taken up for a final vote on the assembly floor.
Unions play a critical role in preserving and protecting labor rights for everyone, whether they’re authorized workers or not, said Zanipatin. “There is this big shift within the workforce, with immigrant workers unionizing and allowing everyone to have a voice at the table,” she said, adding that unions have also become more open to addressing labor issues related to immigration.
It is difficult to quantify how many undocumented workers might benefit from the potential passage of AB 1340. The exact number of undocumented workers in rideshare is unknown because most companies don’t track or disclose immigration status, labor researchers said. But according to a 2020 report by the National Employment Law Project, an estimated 56% of all drivers in the gig economy are immigrants of various statuses.
Flexibility attracted undocumented workers
Because of its flexibility and fewer barriers to entry, the digital app-based gig economy at first seemed welcoming to undocumented people.
“[Companies] didn’t care if they were undocumented or not because they needed drivers, and they needed them on the streets to get people used to ridesharing services,” said Eduardo Romero, the union coordinator for Rideshare Drivers United’s Spanish-speaking members in LA.
That started to change in the late 2010s as a movement to reclassify California gig workers as full-time employees got underway. Undocumented drivers feared that such a reclassification would lock them out of the platforms because it would require them to submit Social Security numbers to comply with federal work requirements. For that reason, many largely stayed out of the fight.
In response to that movement, Uber and Lyft launched a $205 million public campaign to push the passage of Prop. 22 to keep drivers as independent contractors. The rideshare companies won. By then, the fears of undocumented drivers had already proved justified. In 2018, two years before the passage of Prop. 22, Uber started running stricter background checks on its drivers. A year later, Lyft began implementing its own enhanced measures, requiring “continuous” checks and identity verification to curb fraud on its platform.
A spokesperson for Uber said the company continues to prioritize “robust screening processes and technology to help strengthen the safety of our platform.” Lyft did not respond to a request for comment.
The fight by gig workers and labor advocates to reclassify workers as full-time employees in California sought to provide more protections to workers, like paid family leave, overtime and employer-provided health insurance. The fight also exposed the plight of undocumented workers, who helped grow the rideshare industry only to be forced out.
Labor advocates acknowledge the tension
Thomas Saenz, the president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, acknowledges the tension between these movements in the gig economy.
“You have a labor imperative of classifying gig workers as employees — and an understandable desire to do that — but that is in conflict with undocumented immigrants’ ability to do these jobs,” Saenz said. “It’s a tough issue, and as a result, probably has not been talked about much.”
The stakes are significant. About 6.4% of all workers in California are undocumented, paying $10 billion annually in state and federal taxes using Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN), according to a 2022 report by the California Immigrant Policy Center. Researchers estimate the LA region has one of the highest shares of the state’s undocumented workers, with more than 300,000, or 8%, of the region’s total labor force.
Jesus from Mexico City, works as a rideshare driver in LA. The 57-year-old said that over the course of five years, he has completed more than 12,000 trips for DoorDash, Uber, and Lyft. He said he drives about 70 hours a week and earns between $500 and $700, depending on the volume of available work. He asked to be identified by only his first name to protect his privacy.
He said he has “one foot in, one foot out” in the gig economy because of how easily the platforms can deactivate workers for poor customer ratings. He was also barred from some applications that did not allow him to use an ITIN.
“These companies weigh me down, but we need to survive and have to work,” Jesus said. “Like the system or not, we have to adapt when living here.”
He and his wife have three minor children born in the U.S., including a 13-year-old with autism. If Jesus is deported, the family said they would all go to Mexico.
Jesus said he’s had negative experiences as a gig worker and has attended meetings and demonstrations with other drivers organizing in LA, including a demonstration at LA City Hall last month that called for Uber and Lyft to pay potentially billions in wage theft claims for drivers who worked for these companies before Prop 22.
Romero said many immigrants feared retaliation if they aligned themselves with driver groups that supported reclassification to part- and full-time employees in California. Undocumented workers believed they needed to remain independent contractors to work on the platforms – and would not be able to do that under Assembly Bill 5. Signed into law in 2019, AB 5 reclassified certain independent workers as full-time employees. Later, Prop. 22 exempted Uber, Lyft, and other gig apps from AB 5.
But gig companies weren’t the only opponents of AB 5. Some immigrant visa workers were concerned that the law could complicate their immigration status. Legal experts said many immigrants, including those with visas, work for companies using the independent contractor Form 1099, making their status irrelevant.
“Many drivers, being new immigrants, want the flexibility to leave the country for a month or two and resume driving when they return to the US. This is not possible under California laws governing employees,” the Taxicab Paratransit Association of California wrote in a 2018 letter expressing support for AB 5 if amended to address those concerns. LA Public Press obtained the letter through a legislative records request.
Some immigrants see gig work as one of only a few options, but labor experts say the gig economy is not a stable source of income – regardless of immigration status. The earnings are unpredictable and there are few protections, according to Victor Narro, project director of the UCLA Labor Center. He said undocumented workers in particular are more at risk of exploitation as misclassified workers.
“Undocumented immigrants are better off being employed versus being gig workers,” Narro said. “The immigration system has become so outdated, putting these individuals in a vulnerable position even though they contribute in so many different ways.”
Many researchers and advocates draw comparisons between California’s gig economy and its history of farmwork. While labor through Uber and other digital applications is relatively new, contract-based work systems are not.
“Immigrant labor is to the 21st-century gig economy what undocumented agricultural labor was to the 20th-century economy,” said Alfonso Gonzales Toribio, an associate professor of ethnic studies at UC Riverside. “Even though the nature of the work is changing, the relationship between exploiter and exploited has not.”
Laura Padin, director of work structures at the National Employment Law Project, said presenting the gig economy as an employment solution for undocumented people is dishonest.
“It’s not coming from a place of good faith,” Padin said. “[Companies] like these work structures because they get very cheap labor and treat workers poorly and they can say, ‘Well, we’re providing an opportunity to people who otherwise wouldn’t have it.’”
On the other hand, some advocates said undocumented laborers had limited income opportunities until the launch of companies like Uber. In the early days of gig work, immigrant advocates even recommended working for the apps. In 2020, Immigrants Rising and the University of California published a guide detailing how undocumented students could drive for Uber and Lyft. “Becoming an entrepreneur is not easy, but it is possible and can serve as a way to participate in — and help shape — today’s changing economy,” the guide said.
That opportunity has largely closed.
From 2016 to 2018, Carlos, who is referred to only by his first name to protect his privacy, worked for Uber and Lyft. Now 55 years old, he had worked in various sales and customer service jobs after arriving in LA in the early 1990s.
“I enjoy talking with people,” Carlos said, speaking in Spanish. “That has helped me succeed.”
Working for Uber allowed him to start making money early in the day, affording him time and energy to work in door-to-door sales selling kitchenware or attend church in the evening.
Carlos said he returned to sales in 2019 after the apps asked for a Social Security number and barred him from working using an ITIN. He tried signing up for a few food delivery platforms with the ITIN, but “the app would immediately reject me.”
“Because of our legal status, we have few opportunities on the horizon,” Carlos said. “But I have tried not to let it affect me too much because I have a lot of responsibilities.” Carlos and his wife have three children, two of whom are adults, and a daughter in high school.
Uncertain future
Now gig companies are looking to replicate Prop. 22 in other states. As they do, California lawmakers should strengthen legislation aimed at reclassifying and unionizing gig workers to include protections for undocumented workers, advocates said.
These protections are needed, they said, as the Trump administration targets immigrants of all statuses, including demanding personal information of ITIN filers from the Internal Revenue Service.
Late last year, DoorDash cracked down on undocumented drivers using false identities — a practice known as “sub-contracting” — after Republican politicians complained that drivers were “gaming the system.”
Researchers also urge more studies of migrant work in the U.S. gig economy and additional research into the intersection of these groups within broader labor laws.
As for immigrants like Carlos, he said family and religion provide support during uncertain times when it feels like the federal government has targeted him and others.
“I try to be a proactive person and have a mentality that keeps me going despite the circumstances we come across,” Carlos said.
Jesus said he is considering work outside the gig economy. He has worked in the fields, been a manager at McDonald’s, worked at a car dealership and sold ice cream with a cart in the park, but has also struggled to make ends meet and has lived on the streets.
“I don’t have regrets,” he said. “Money can be earned honorably, and we immigrants are very serious about our work. I’ve never felt inferior in this country because I have learned some English and demonstrated that my work is valuable.”
