[WackyKat]

Wal-mart doesn't know anything about the conditions in Chinese factories, either

[Bamabunker]

I'm boycotting China-Mart nowadays. Back to Sears & Roebuck for more than just tools. They pay employees salaries while they have been called to duty. That's patriotic in my book.

[elli1]

So Wal-Mart fell for that old line, "We're from the government & we're here to help you."

Slight twist on it this time though--"We're from the INS & we're here to help you."

[heleny]

Before and after the raids, Wal-Mart says it did what it could to ensure that its contractors were hiring legal workers. Antidiscrimination sections of the immigration code limit an employer's ability to investigate an employee's legal status, the company said. Indeed, in 1996, the INS filed a complaint against Wal-Mart for requiring prospective hires who weren't U.S. citizens to show more verification than required by law. The company paid a $60,000 fine. "Accordingly, our company was very hesitant to ask for more assurances about the status of our contractors' employees," says Ms. Williams, the Wal-Mart spokeswoman.

Why don't we let companies require whatever extra documentation they want, as long as they meet minimum requirements like verification of eligibility to work? It sounds like the law doesn't solve the problem it was supposed to solve.

If a company wants to discriminate, it will certainly find a way around the law.

[TheDon]

The unions hate Wal-Mart, perhaps that is why they are being hit, or perhaps just because they are so successful. I shop at Wal-Mart to gouge the unions in the eye, and the prices are rather good.

[Pro-Bush]

The complex relationships between Wal-Mart, its contractors and subcontractors and federal officials are now being examined by a federal grand jury in Scranton, Pa. While the full story is still uncertain, the intriguing outlines are visible in police reports and court records.

I smell a conspiracy brewing!

[two23]

"Before and after the raids, Wal-Mart says it did what it could to ensure that its contractors were hiring legal workers. Antidiscrimination sections of the immigration code limit an employer's ability to investigate an employee's legal status, the company said. Indeed, in 1996, the INS filed a complaint against Wal-Mart for requiring prospective hires who weren't U.S. citizens to show more verification than required by law. (What??) The company paid a $60,000 fine. "Accordingly, our company was very hesitant to ask for more assurances about the status of our contractors' employees..."

Ok---so our borders are wide open to anyone from anywhere--then retailers have to comply with anti-discrimination policies regarding "illegals" (don't snoop/don't ask--don't tell?)..then they get FINED $60,000 for not sending proper background info????

Dmaned if ya do--damned if ya don't, I guess

[Lloyd227]

""If Wal-Mart was cooperating, why would [the government] have gone ahead with the raids on 61 stores?"

uh... possibly because the prosecutors and LEOs involved a arrogant thugs in need of a headline?

[Eris]

Funny - states want to give illegals driver's licenses, the feds are considering giving them social security.

But when Wal-Mart employs them by proxy, that's a crime.

When I look at all the people who despise Wal-Mart and why, I remember I need to stop by one on the way home tonight and pick up some things.

:)

[gubamyster]

ping

[Regulator]

By the time the federal prosecutors had closed in on him, Chris Walters was a wealthy man

Yeah, being a human smuggler of indentured slaves will make you rich. Of course, you run the risk of being caught, and possibly losing the money you made by cheating and victimizing people, but don't worry. The free trade cultists will defend your "right" to do that, down to the last slave you've smuggled in.

[janetgreen]

Bush's proposed amnesty will cover the butts of these slave labor employers while screwing American taxpayers.

[TLI]

Wal-Mart says managers at many levels knew about the problem of illegal workers in its stores, because they had been cooperating for as long as three years in federal investigations in both Pennsylvania and Chicago.

Wal-Mart says it was led to believe it wasn't a target of the investigations, and it says it didn't take action to sever its ties with the contractors because federal officials specifically asked it to leave the relationships in place.

Which is a PERFECT example of just how much to trust a fed. They are there to do one thing, make an arrest. The bigger the better. They are NOT your friend / buddy / whatever.

[freeangel]

"federal officials specifically asked it to leave the relationships in place"

Wal-Mart better have that in writing or a tape made somewhere. And if it does it will be interesting to watch the developments of the case.

[Old Professer]

The agents told the Wal-Mart officials that the contractors recruited illegal immigrants through overseas ads and charged them $10,000 to come to America, which they then had to work off. "They are indebted to the groups that bring them over, and stealing is one of the ways they labor to pay off the debts," the agents told the Wal-Mart employees, according to a Wal-Mart memo chronicling the meeting

White slavery; the more things change, the more they stay the same.

[atlaw]

ON THE ONE HAND: "It probably sounds a little naive now, but we were simply trying to help our government and cooperated closely with federal agents for three years," says Mona Williams, Wal-Mart vice president of corporate communications. "Throughout that time they specifically told us we were not the target of any investigation and that we would be given a heads-up before any arrests were made in our stores. Instead, they conducted unannounced raids on our stores and created a well-planned media frenzy by saying they had proof that Wal-Mart executives knew what was going on. All we knew was what they had told us."


ON THE OTHER HAND: "Before and after the raids, Wal-Mart says it did what it could to ensure that its contractors were hiring legal workers."


A consistent story would help their case.

[norton]

"If Wal-Mart was cooperating, why would [the government] have gone ahead with the raids on 61 stores?" a person close to the investigation said.

I could suggest an answer but the bureaucrat close to the investigation would really, really, hate the answer.

[Walkin Man]

"It probably sounds a little naive now, but we were simply trying to help our government and cooperated closely with federal agents for three years," says Mona Williams, Wal-Mart vice president of corporate communications.

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!