Chipotle fires "hundreds" in Minnesota after federal immigration audit.

[pampango]

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/01/25/chipotle-immigrant-workers/

When the Chipotle Mexican Grill dismissed hundreds of workers in Minnesota because they failed to produce proper documents allowing them to legally work in the United States, it sparked a backlash from some former employees and labor activists.

Chipotle dismissed the workers after a federal immigration audit of its worker documents. The company's woes are the latest and most visible example of the federal government's stepped-up efforts to monitor whether businesses are employing immigrants who are not legally in the United States.

For Chipotle, the needlework unraveled. Immigration authorities are investigating whether the company knowingly hired workers without legal permission to work in Minnesota. Chipotle officials also have received a notice of inspection for two additional states.

The company's action also calls into question the methods employed by immigration authorities, said Javier Morillo, president of the Service Employees International Union local 26. In 2009, Morillo said, a quarter of his membership turned over when 1,200 ABM janitors lost their jobs in the largest worker audit in Minnesota. Morillo said most of the fired janitors didn't leave the country, but simply went deeper into the underground economy.

There's a link for the audio of Minnesota Public Radio's report of the story.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/www_publicradio/tools/media_player/e_player.swf


Allies of Chipotle workers who lost their jobs as a result of an immigration audit protest
outside Chipotle in downtown Minneapolis Jan. 20, 2011. Eight people were charged with
misdemeanors for trespassing after chaining themselves inside the restaurant. (MPR/Sasha Aslanian)

[my2sense]

1. I wonder how the company is

being penalized for this. Do they have to pay a fine for each employee found to be working illegally or does the burden fall on the shoulders of the workers? :sarcasm:

[Lance_Boyle]

2. Every worker found to be in the country illegally should have been held for deportation

at Chipotle's expense. But that would actually solve the problem - nobody wants that, apparently. Not the businesses that exploit the illegal labor, and not the backwards-thinking supporters of illegal alien wage scabs.

[pampango]

3. "Immigration authorities are investigating whether the company knowingly hired workers without legal

permission to work in Minnesota ..."

"MPR News filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act to learn which Minnesota employers have been fined or criminally prosecuted, but has yet to receive that information."

Sounds like ICE hasn't made a decision yet on criminal prosecutions at Chipotle. If I worked in management there, I'd be worried a lot more now than during the previous administration.

"Mr. Morton said that the center would be staffed with specialists who will pore over the I-9 employee files collected from companies targeted for audits. In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2010, ICE conducted audits of more than 2,740 companies, nearly twice as many as the previous year. The agency levied a record $7 million in civil fines on businesses that employed illegal workers.

Enforcement activity during the Bush administration focused on high-profile raids in which thousands of illegal immigrants were arrested and placed in deportation proceedings. Relatively few companies and their executives were prosecuted. In contrast, the Obama administration has made employers the center of its immigration policy with "silent raids.""

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703951704576092381196958362.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLETopStories

"To its credit, the Obama administration has more than tripled the number of ICE agents assigned to check hiring practices. The agency has targeted several thousand employers with stepped-up audits of their workforces, arrested hundreds of company officials and levied fines amounting to millions of dollars against companies hiring undocumented workers. Recently, ICE announced that it is beefing up its ability to go after larger companies that may employ undocumented workers. All that is a sensible shift from Bush administration policy, which emphasized raids on factories featuring mass detentions of the workers themselves.

The administration has cracked down on employers, tightened border security and stepped up its deportation efforts, particularly against undocumented immigrants with criminal records. Those steps, combined with the recession, have dramatically slowed the inflow of workers here illegally. Still, some 11 million of them remain in America, working in the shadows. As long as Congress refuses to act, the problem will continue to fester."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/21/AR2011012106497.html

[MNBrewer]

4. My boyfriend noticed one difference after this happened

"Worst. Burrito. EVER." is the exact quote.

[PVnRT]

5. Kind of a dick move for a restaurant that prides itself on a green/sustainable image

Kind of makes them like Whole Foods in that respect - offer all the warm fuzzies of good food to the yuppies, hire underpaid undocumented workers to cook everything, fire them when the federales start sniffing around.

[SpartanDem]

6. Good first move, now prosecute the owners