For TJ: Health Care Proposals
"hk" wrote in message
. ..
Eisboch wrote:
"hk" wrote in message
...
Well, you'll have to use a cattle prod to get the Bush Admin to do that.
I haven't read where the chairman and board of Wal-Mart have been
arrested and charged with employing illegals.
You have inside information that Wal-Mart hires illegals?
Eisboch
Nope. Outside info:
Wal-Mart Settles Illegal Immigrant Case for $11M
Saturday , March 19, 2005
FC1
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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), the world's largest retailer, escaped criminal
charges when it agreed to pay $11 million, a record fine in a civil
immigration case, to end a federal probe into its use of illegal
immigrants as janitors.
Additionally, 12 businesses that provided contract janitor services to
Wal-Mart will pay $4 million in fines and plead guilty to criminal
immigration charges, officials said.
Wal-Mart's shares edged down 73 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $51.60 on the
New York Stock Exchange (search).
The deal resolves a more than four-year-long Department of Justice
(search) investigation into the employment practices of the company's
former floor-cleaning contractors.
"This case breaks new ground not only because this is a record dollar
amount for a civil immigration settlement, but because this settlement
requires Wal-Mart to create an internal program to ensure future
compliance with immigration laws by Wal-Mart contractors and by Wal-Mart
itself," said Michael J. Garcia, assistant secretary for U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (search).
"We plan to use this settlement as a model for future cases and efforts in
worksite enforcement," he said.
Wal-Mart received a target letter from a grand jury in Pennsylvania and
was the subject of an October 2003 raid spanning 21 states and 60 stores.
The raids led to the arrest of 245 allegedly illegal immigrants.
Wal-Mart, which has 1.2 million domestic workers, had pledged its
cooperation in the investigation.
"We are satisfied that this is being settled as a civil matter," Wal-Mart
spokeswoman Mona Williams said. "Despite a long, thorough and high-profile
investigation, the government has not charged anyone at Wal-Mart with
wrongdoing."
No longer does Wal-Mart employ outside contractors to clean its floors.
Companies that do contract work for other chores will have stricter rules
to follow to win those contracts, and upper management will have to
approve contracts of more than $10,000, Williams said.
"It is a lot of money, but I think that is because it is designed to get
attention and remind businesses everywhere that they have a duty to ensure
their outside contractors are following federal immigration laws."
In two separate investigations, authorities uncovered the cases of an
estimated 345 illegal immigrants contracted as janitors at Wal-Mart
stores. Many of the workers worked seven days or nights a week without
overtime pay or injury compensation, attorneys said. Those who worked
nights were often locked in the store until the morning.
Wal-Mart Stores, based in Bentonville, Ark., had sales last year of
$288.19 billion.
In 2001, authorities arrested an estimated 100 illegal immigrants at
Wal-Mart stores in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and Missouri. Last year,
on Oct. 23, federal agents raided 60 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states, netting
245 immigrants who were placed in deportation proceedings. ICE said the
workers came from 18 different nations, including 90 from Mexico, 35 from
the Czech Republic, 22 from Mongolia and 20 from Brazil.
Officials said at the time of the raids the investigation involved
wiretaps that revealed Wal-Mart executives were aware that the
subcontractors used illegal workers. Once the raid began, Wal-Mart told
its executives to preserve documents. Federal agents didn't wait and moved
in on part of the company's Bentonville headquarters, taking boxes from
the office of a midlevel executive.
An employer can face civil and criminal penalties for knowingly hiring
illegal immigrants or failing to comply with certain employee
record-keeping regulations. But the settlement spared Wal-Mart of any
criminal charges, though it still faces a civil suit on behalf of the
immigrants that is pending in New Jersey.
The federal settlement also directs Wal-Mart to train all current and
future store managers to prevent employing, hiring or recruiting illegal
immigrants, and to comply with ongoing investigations of cleaning
contractors previously used by the company.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Did not see anywhere in the story where Wal-mart hired the illegals.
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