Feds arrest over 300 Illegal Workers at Wal-Mart Stores Across the Country

Fox ^

[flamefront]

Is this an orchestrated timing? Give the right a bone while at the same time push through amnesties in Congress?

[Joe Hadenuf]

"The workers arrested were members of cleaning crews which the company hired through a contractor." Why is this Walmart's fault? Sounds like the owner of the independent contractor business is to blame!

Let me guess, you think this company along with all the other companies out there are all innocent?

You don't think Wal-Mart knows ? You go into a Wal Mart in LA and half the employees can hardly speak English. LOL!

And you stand here supporting these a$$holes that push communist products all day?

Let me guess, another konservative?

[RedBloodedAmerican]

My local Senator said on TV yesterday in reference to the kid who put the knives on Southwest airplanes that "We need to stop looking for objects, and start looking at the particular type of person". Seems the "28 yr old muslim male" is hitting the bigtime. Wonder if thats what they are doing at Wal-Mexi-Mart now.

[freebilly]

Arrests were made in Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.

Good thing they didn't target California. 80% of the employees and managers would have to be deported.

[RightWhale]

companies that conduct cleaning services

Need cash quick? Bid low on a cleaning contract, do a half-a##ed job, leave soon.

[Bernard Marx]

Why WalMart? Why now?

Good question. Maybe this is part of the answer. WalMart is planning to open some 60 super-stores around the country that have everything from tires to groceries. In some parts of the country these stores have already killed off several supermarket chains because they deliver products at about 14% less than existing chains. Cost-cutting competition against these stores is a big part of why grocery checkers are on strike in California. They're being asked to forgo raises for 2 years and accept higher medical care premiums.

Anyway, it doesn't strike me as beyond the realm of possibility that lobbyists for Safeway, Kroger, Albertsons, etc. are putting plenty of pressure on the Justice Department to find any irregularities in the way WallyWorld does business. As a footnote, Oakland, CA where "Moonbeam" Jerry Brown is now mayor, has just outlawed these big stores through its zoning laws.

[Joe Hadenuf]

You mean Wal Mart employees?

Funny, some of these people here mock the unions, and tell everyone they'd rather shop at Wal Mart cause their not union. LOL!

No Walmart is not union, it's illegal aliens selling communist products... LOL!

But hey, their not unions...

Yeah, lets here it for Wal Mart.....

[JamesA]

Well Wallmart, you get exactly what you pay for! You like the cheap labor from sweat shops,dispise labor unions..You are the bully of the block putting out of business long time standing mom and Pop places...I hope it comes back to bite you.

[txdoda]

Aren't they being lined up for free schooling instead? >>>>>>

I'm sure these *workers* already have many kido's getting their free education, however the adults are lining up to get their FREE (paid for by TAXPAYERS) MONIES so they may BUY A HOUSE.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Good thing they didn't target California. 80% of the employees and managers would have to be deported.

But, but Wal Mart is innocent. They don't have any idea they have illegal aliens working in their stores.

LOL!

[Xenalyte]

"Illegal" is what they are. "Undocumented" is a cop-out. Say the truth.

[txdoda]

300 down, 4,900,700 to go. >>>>>>>>

HAHA....fooled you too !!

Looks like many have been RELEASED, after they PROMISED to appear for their deportation hearing.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Why WalMart? Why now?

Uh, since it has been common knowledge that places like Wal-mart and K-mart have been employing illegal aliens for years, that's a good question.

[B Knotts]

The individuals picked up in the immigration sweep could face deportation proceedings, sources said.

COULD?!?!?

[Forgiven_Sinner]

Sounds like the owner of the independent contractor business is to blame!

I've seen the way these "cleaning contracts" work, a friend asked me to evaluate the situation for him 20 years ago, when he was thinking about getting into the business.

Some sharpie from a "business brokerage" goes around and gets cleaning contracts from businesses. The sharpie "sells" the contract to an independent contractor for an outrageous fee, then handles billing for them for another outrageous permanent monthly fee. The IC ends up making little or nothing for quite some time. Often, the only way to make it work is to hire illegal aliens, usually the only people duped into buying these "business opportunites" are people who are just barely here legally themselves, they often have connections to find illegals who will do the backbreaking work for nearly nothing. The sharpie who brokers the cleaning contract can pull it away from the IC on the flimsiest of reasons, and surely selling it to another sucker is one of those reasons. Needless to say, I advised my friend not to get involved with this.

In short, somebody unsophisticated enough to fall for the cleaning contract scam is generally going to be unconcerned with immigration law. I do hold the firms who contract with the sharpies responsible, if they just simply hired their own cleaning crews, they would have control over legal immigration status. These are good jobs for people coming off of welfare, and by just handing it off to somebody willing to exploit immigrants and the illegals they know the immigrant will hire, they contribute to the problem of encouraging the penetration of our borders.

Thanks for the info. I have to disagree with you about responsibility. Even if Walmart hired the cleaners at minimum wage, the cost of benefits makes these workers more expensive than outsourcing to a contract agency. You can't hold a company responsible for seeking out the minimum cost labor.

Once Walmart hires the agency, they are not responsible for the source of the agency's workers. If the only way to make money is to break the law, the company shouldn't be in business. If no one pays for the "outrageous contracts", the price goes down. The bottom line is, people have to obey the law. Even if you're doing good to the economy as a migrant laborer, you have to follow our immigration laws. Or be deported. My question is, why aren't the illegals immediately deported?

[DE50AE]

(I do not hold the majority view here about undocumented workers. I'm sorry, I just can't.)

How many undocumented workers would you like to have in our country? How about we just open the borders and let them flood in? Maybe you'd care to look ahead and imagine what that would do to the job market that a whole lot of DOCUMENTED WORKERS (i.e. US citizens) have been struggling with lately.

[VU4G10]

The congress plans to sneak through a bill legalizing 2 million illegal aliens, mostly Mexicans. The bill is S-1645, the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2003. They will try to get it into the Omnibus appropriations bill and pass it without anyone noticing.

[sonsofliberty2000]

We don't wanna be mean to the foreigners that are here illegally. We might break a law, or something unlike the, uh, well...


Nevermind.

[Pro-Bush]

300 illegals arrested Ping!

[CSM]

I have negotiated many "contract labor" contracts and the bottom line is that the benefits of dealing with contract labor is the flexibility that comes with it. The hiring, firing, personnell record management, tax management, etc. are all part of the package deal. A company hires contract labor by paying a contract company to perform all functions of providing that labor. It has to be assumed that the company you pay for that service is at minimum obeying the laws of the appropriate levels of government. Why should any company be blamed for the practices that the management of a hired company undertake? The whole point of the agreement is that that contract company would undertake this responsibility and receive compensation for those activities.