McDonald's franchise fined one million dollars for employing illegal immigrants

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McDonald's franchise fined one million dollars for employing illegal immigrants

Would you like fries with your raid?

Yesterday, Mack and Associates Inc., a company that owns 11 McDonald's restaurants in Nevada, was fined one million dollars by a federal court after pleading guilty to employing 58 illegal immigrants.

The court found that the company purposefully hired the illegal immigrants, offering them names and social security numbers to use that belong to other U.S. citizens, said the US Justice Department.

In a Las Vegas federal court, Mack and Associates corporate officers pleaded guilty to "conspiracy to encourage and induce an alien's unlawful residence in the United States and aiding and abetting an alien to remain in the country," the department said. Meanwhile, the company's former vice president pleaded guilty to inducing an illegal alien to remain in the United States and faces up to five years in prison and a 250,000 dollar five.

The case is an anomaly among government raids, which typically only end in the prosecution and deportation of the illegals due to the difficulty in proving high ranking officers knowingly hired illegal immigrants.

In May, the largest Immigrations and Customs Enforcement raid in history ended with the arrest of 389 employees of an Iowa meat-packing plant. Two supervisors have been charged with aiding and abetting the use of fraudulent identification, yet the Justice Department has yet to produce charges against Agriprocessors Inc. or its corporate officers.

Some in Congress are upset about this trend, and worry about the damage these types of raids and deportations cause on the families of those deported.

Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) announced yesterday that they will visit those most impacted by the May 12, 2008 ICE raid of the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa on July 26th.

"As the Bush Administration and ICE crack down on, criminalize and imprison workers, nearly 400 families in Postville have been left with an impossible daily struggle to feed their children. Meanwhile, their employers—accused of wage and hour violations, child labor and physical and sexual abuse—face no charges," said Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) in a press release.

CHC members, and many others in Congress, are pushing for comprehensive immigration reform, a buzz word that encompasses the prosecution of those who hire illegal immigrants, a revamping of visa rules, increased border security, a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants in the country, and various other programs designed to attract and retain hard-working, intelligent immigrants.

Across the political aisle that can appear more like an ocean some days, many republicans are cheering the ICE raids and hoping for more. Following a series of ICE raids on the Swift & Co. plants in Colorado, Rep. Tom Tancredo sent a letter to ICE Assistant Secretary Julie Myers to commend her for a job well done.

“This kind of enforcement action by ICE has been sorely missing over the past decade and I urge you to expand such operations to other industries.”

Regardless of your stance on the immigration debate, one thing is for certain: a supply of illegal immigrants in the U.S. will always exist so long as there is demand for their services from business owners. Like the drug war, tackling supply without addressing the demand will simply lead to an unwinnable campaign against a group of people simply looking for a better life.

Published Jul 17 2008, 10:24 AM by Andrew B. Einhorn | Email | Print

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	MORE:	Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration, Band-Aid Fixes, Colorado, Iowa, Congress

Comments

Deport Em said:

ICE should next come and raid the McDonald's in Chicago and Illinois. There are a ton of Mexicans working there. And then people wonder why high school kids cannot find jobs - its because all the illegals took them.

July 17, 2008 3:42 PM

Logic said:

Deport em, consider this: when you deport the parents of a child who is a US citizen, one of two things happen. One, the kid grows up in the US, orphaned and a product of the State and foster care systems; or two, he leaves the US with his parents, but returns legally at age 18, speaking little-to-no English and without the benefits of a US education, potentially a drain on society. Do you really think that flat out deportation -- a costly measure-- is really better than making people pay fines, learn English, and earn citizenship?

July 17, 2008 3:51 PM

Brittanicus said:

End any chance of complaints against police departments, (ICE) Immigration Enforcement, Marshall's, by pursuing the pariah employer. Funding is limited under current immigration laws, because Democrats have gutted most appropriations. Instead of going after illegal immigrants, that can lead to mistakes. We must enact the Federal SAVE ACT (H.R.4088) and go after the real culprits. "Some employers improperly hire workers as independent contractors to avoid paying benefits like Medicare, Social Security, insurance and workers' compensation. Employers who contribute to the local economy should not have to compete with those employers who choose to break the law by knowingly misclassifying their employees, " quoted Iowa Gov. Chet Culver Thiese are the predatory businesses that ignore Immigration laws. Once caught employers should have the heaviest penalties thrown against them. Unless they have used the government E-verify data base and those hired have been shown to be legal. Then penalties should be harsh and severe. They are stealing jobs from citizens and legal residents, which should be classed as a 'A' felony. If convicted should be heavily fined, business assets confiscated to add funds to ICE. I'm sure McDonald's lucrative employment of illegal immigrants, will bring out anti-sovereignty groups like the ACLU, Southern Poverty league and special interest lobby. If caught with more than five illegal immigrants in their employ, should be locked away for at least 5 years. No half-measures like using factory managers as a scapegoat. No matter their highest echelon, no Chairman, CEO, Director should be able to shun our laws. Millions of regular people are joining for free www.numbersusa.com, to stop this travesty of our immigration laws.

July 17, 2008 6:45 PM

Pisces2008 said:

Britanus, once again you are wrong. Immigrants do not take jobs away from US Citizens. They simply will not work for the minimum wage. After all, it's beneath them. *"...Up to $600 per worker is being shelled out by farm managers to get seasonal workers in the country legally as immigration laws make it more difficult to hire illegal foreign workers. L o c a l w o r k e r s a r e n o t b i t i n g a t t h e $ 9 . 4 2 a n h o u r job offer to harvest produce in farms across the U.S. *http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7011500003

July 17, 2008 10:15 PM

PoorGuy2008 said:

There's no US Citizen out there that is willing to work on the field,you can pay them 20 dollars an hour cash and they still wouldn't go. That is not an american life working on the field, tell you that. If a US citizen 's hired to work on the field that farmer wouldn't get that much of a help ,attitude and slow motion maybe, the farmers out there know what they are doing and who to hire.

July 20, 2008 12:19 PM