(afagen)
Following an audit of employees’ legal statuses, Chipotle fired between 350 and 700 undocumented employees at its Minnesota restaurants.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports protesters accused Chipotle of canning the workers without giving them adequate time to prove they were here legally, while making them wait too long for the pay that was due. Chipotle responded that each worker was given a chance to show documentation, and all dismissed employees were paid “promptly.” Chipotle also said that employees who claimed they were legal residents were given more time to produce papers.
Chipotle identified targets to interrogate based on a list from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
What do you think is the most effective way to regulate the employment of illegal residents?
Chipotle fires hundreds, draws protest [Minneapolis Star Tribune]
(Thanks, Gary!)
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Regulate the employment of ILLEGALs by regulating THE EMPLOYER.
+1
also +1
Isn’t that what happened? The government investigated Chipotle, told them “these people aren’t kosher. Deal with it or you’re in trouble.” And Chipotle fixed the problem. You would rather have had the gov’t raid 50 restaurants like they did Swift?
The bothersome thing about your scenario is that Chipotle management was already aware that they were hiring undocumented workers. They would not have been able to be hired without the assent of Chipotle management. So it was no surprise to Chipotle when they got called out; they were probably just annoyed that they got caught.
That doesn’t prevent illegal immigration, just illegal employment. They will still be there.
That doesn’t prevent illegal immigration, just illegal employment. They will still be there.
no they won’t. Why would you come here if you couldn’t get paid?
Free Health Care?
Why not just go to Canada then?
Because Canada wont treat them. In the US there are laws that dictate a person must be treated. So it’s not that we give it for free, the problem is they simply don’t pay and the hospitals pass the cost on to every one else. Which is one contributer to the ever increasing health care cost.
Canada has laws requiring treatment, nice try.
Funny!
Are we still talking about America?
This. What are the chances Chipotle actually gets punishment for hiring/employing them for all this time.
Employers love to blame the undocumented workers for lying, but don’t do due diligence when they hire them in the first place.
If you knowingly hire illegal immigrants, you should go to jail. I wonder how quickly the flow of illegal immigrants will dry up when we see CEO’s and HR directors of the companies that hire these people being perp-walked on national TV?
That having been said, the INS is a heaping pile of fail. We should be making it easier for LEGAL immigrants to come to this country. Make sure they have jobs and pay taxes, and encourage them to become citizens.
Sure, like we need even more immigrants, legal or not. If they’re not citizens, I say send them back to wherever they came from.
This. 1,000 x this. And it appears that Chipotle is doing just that. So, instead of the dog-and-pony shows that ICE runs when they swarm meatpacking plants and cart undocumented workers away en masse, while leaving the management alone, Chipotle is doing it the dignified way.
Stiff penalties such as fines that make a difference and jail time.
Jail time for that is BS.
If someone hires someone with a fake green card or drivers license, and think it is real, jail time? Really?
Yes, REALLY.
Most states have an e-verify program where you enter the credentials provided by the employee and it tells you whether the info is valid. Those that do not have e-verify have verification by snail mail.
If the documents fool the system, that’s another issue. If they are never run through the system, then the employer should be held completely liable.
That’s federal, not state, and is open to all employers for a *RIDICULOUSLY* small fee. Even at the worst, it runs less than $1 per SSN verification.
If you go to bed with a 15 year old with a fake 18 year ID, you go to jail.
So, yes.
Did you just conflate statutory rape with adults entering into a voluntary employment agreement? Yes, yes you did. Please start thinking critically.
Actually he compared unknowingly sleeping with a minor with unknowingly hiring an illegal. Both are equally against the law even if you aren’t aware of the person’s status.
Jail time for a corporation?
Regulate the employer. Fine them 25% of their top-line revenue if caught. Surely that’s enough of a roadblock. Illegals can still work if they find someone willing to risk it, or they could get legal, or they could go home.
CEOs have been imprisoned in the past for knowingly promoting illegal practices. Also, many Chipoltes, like many other restaurant chains a franchises with ownership that can be easily traced to an individual or group of investors.
Sure, why not jail time? The person who signed off on hiring an undocumented worker can spend 15-30 days in jail per worker!
The most effective way to regulate employment of illegal residents is simply to make them legal residents and forget about a non-issue.
But then people will lose their *seemingly* legitimate argument and will have to instead publicly admit to their latent racism.
And remember, people who are ‘CUZ ITS THE LAW! folk really only adopt that stance for the laws they like… changing the law to make illegals suddenly legal would simply not do.
I’m both a minority and a naturalized U.S. citizen, and I find your racism explanation a little facile. Countries have a right to regulate their borders, and it’s very possible to navigate those regulations without resorting to identity theft or fraud.
Most other countries regulate their borders, yet only the U.S. is decried as a bully and a tyrant for doing it. No wait, Israel too I suppose (let’s avoid that topic, though).
I mean, do you think western European nations that border eastern Europe keep their borders completely open? Heck, even Mexico is pretty brutal with *their* southern border, and they routinely deny rights to immigrants.
And to add to that–someone look up Japan’s immigration policies. And people act like the US is racist and xenophobic. Sheesh.
Why yes, in my 30 word internet comment response I didn’t fully articulate the full breadth of the motivations for people’s stance on immigration in the US, you caught me. :-/
Appeal to ridicule arguments are rarely a good tactic in debate.
From my perspective, your statements actually detract from your argument as you are trying to persuade people through guilt rather then through reason.
Well yeah — silly me, for assuming that when you accused people against the legalization of all illegal immigrants of being latent racists that you were somehow implying that they were all racists. Your perfectly benign and reasonable position, that not all people against the legalization of all illegal immigrants are latent racists, should have been self evident.
Prove it to us. Would love to see the scientific research done showing that Americans who want their borders controlled are racists.
I await the link to the research.
Thats right, it wouldnt do. The minute I can go to Mexico and instantly become a citizen, or any other country for that matter, I may change my stance. But a huge chunk of my hard earned check every two weeks is taken to pay for things like school, health care, roads, and things of that nature. I dont get to send all my money to my family (who would spend it here, boosting this economy).
Yes, why not let everyone in this country with out any process whatsoever come one come all. That should end well. If you don’t speak it already you should start learning Spanish, oh and get ready to pay out the @$$ for all their free healthcare and school; Or maybe you like contracting tuberculosis or some other wonderful disease; Or maybe you like not having a job or a job for the teenager on your block. yes, a non issue indeed.
We let your ancestors in, though that was obviously a mistake.
Your argument is fallacious. Most European immigrants came in through Ellis Island and were properly documented. They didn’t come here to send money back to their families in Europe, instead they came here to make a better life for themselves. The learned to speak English, educated their children, and spent their earnings here in the U.S. to live the “American Dream”. I’m all for legal immigration, but I agree with the posters, we shouldn’t reward illegal immigration, we shouldn’t reward law breakers.
+1
Seconded.
Thirded.
Who is “we”? Would letting the psycho killers out of prison be a non-issue to you also?
Ad hom… how precious!
This guy is the king of ad hom. He keeps preaching about college educations yet can’t avoid fallacies in his arguments.
I disagree, but you get points for making me laugh! This is how debates should be done.
Exactly. We all know that finite amounts off land and resources can hold infinite amounts of people. Where did you guys take math class? Mexico?
Yeh I’ll make them legal after they confess & pay for all the fraud/CRIME they committed when obtaining the falsified documents. If an American citizen falsifies documents just for a job we get arrested for FRAUD, a CRIME. Same for employers, if they fudged paperwork to keep their cheap labor ment ILLEGAL immigrant employees they need to pay for the CRIMES they committed.
Why did they obtain those documents? Because nobody would let them work legally, change the process and just make it easy to get the legal documents, they don’t even need to be citizens, all I care is that they pay taxes (if they are in the country they need to pay for it). Chipotle isn’t trying to be cheap by hiring illegals, they are paying the taxes, and they fired them because it’s illegal for them to knowingly keep them employed.
Same deal with the pot is illegal issue, nobody is really getting hurt by it, making it illegal leads to more crime to support it, make it legal and the criminal sector for it goes away, and now you can tax it instead of spending money to enforce it, it’s a win win for everyone.
Yes, when we were busy making laws to keep Chinese and Asian immigrants out. By the way, as far as learning the language- you ever try and learn a language besides the basic 2 semesters in high school/college? It is not easy and older folks have an even harder time, while their kids can speak both fluently for the most part. I guess you forgot how when all of the immigrants from the late 1800s and early 1900s also couldn’t really speak a word of English (excluding the Isles). That is why you have neighborhoods based on nationality. They couldn’t really speak English. Not to mention nowadays, there is a $695 fee you have to pay upfront plus another $80 for a medical exam, which keeps most of the world from really being able to immigrate. It was easier back then when Ellis Island was running because there wasn’t an outrageous fee and all the people were white.
Yes, when we were busy making laws to keep Chinese and Asian immigrants out. By the way, as far as learning the language- you ever try and learn a language besides the basic 2 semesters in high school/college? It is not easy and older folks have an even harder time, while their kids can speak both fluently for the most part. I guess you forgot how when all of the immigrants from the late 1800s and early 1900s also couldn’t really speak a word of English (excluding the Isles). That is why you have neighborhoods based on nationality. They couldn’t really speak English, so they shopped and lived around folks who spoke their language and shared their culture. Not to mention nowadays, there is a $695 fee you have to pay upfront plus another $80 for a medical exam, which keeps most of the world from really being able to immigrate. It was easier back then when Ellis Island was running because there wasn’t an outrageous fee and all the people were white.
What do you mean its a non-issue?? How many citizens have you hired lately? How much in taxes have you paid for these citizens? How cheaply did you hire your citizens?
Are you so unqualified you can’t compete in a job market alongside illegal immigrants who barely have a grasp of the English language? You should have stayed in school.
You can’t compete with someone who converts most of their money into a foreign currency.
Hi, America here. In case you don’t know me, American corporations are willing to hire under-qualified people at below market wages because it will increase their shareholder value. And if the under-qualified employee, making 50% less than a qualified person would make, fucks up, the client can call the customer service department in India or East Jabip where employees are making 70% less than the original, Qualified Employee would receive. The corporation is still ahead by a few percentage points…
why should you have to compete with some guy who shouldn’t even be here?
You repeat this statement, or the gist of it at least, fairly often. The fact is that not everyone is cut out to go to college. Mexico and other countries where most of the illegal immigrants come from have doctors, scientists, stellar teachers, and gifted business leaders, but it’s not ten or eleven million of them in the US. 49% of the population is going to be below average in every society, including ours. The manufacturing jobs that many of these people depended on have gone to other countries that are content to kill their citizens and poison their land by looking the other way when companies dump their waste where they will. The agricultural jobs still available bear no resemblance to what was available 50 or even 30 years ago – working a family farm imparts a self-respect and reliance totally absent from picking crops from dawn to dusk for no real gain to yourself.
I don’t believe that most Americans are unwilling to start out with minimum wage jobs – that’s always the way that high schoolers and people trying to earn their way through college have begun their working lives. I’m only 29, and I’ve worked jobs for $4.25, $4.75, and $6 an hour. I don’t count myself unusual. I grew up in Wisconsin, lived in Minnesota and Pennsylvania, and currently reside in New Jersey. My current job takes me all over the eastern half of the country. The people at the bottom are pretty much the same no matter where you are. With an influx of at or below minimum wage workers taking unskilled service jobs, and companies exporting manufacturing jobs, then importing the products of those jobs to get high American prices for them, what are those citizens who are pinched from both sides to do? Magically increase in intelligence, specialized aptitude, or social graces? From your comments you’d also do away with government funded education, so it’s more likely these people would grow up with none, rather than at least the attempt at some. Your comments come off as completely devoid of empathy and extremely narrow minded.
That is the equivalent of you commiting fraud and then asking for a pardon for no reason.
Being undocumented in this country is a crime.
Yes, it is, but the real question is this: Should it be? If we want to be the bastion of liberty that we claim we are, then we should start by acting like one.
So if you can get past the boarder guards you get citizenship? I wish the local country club would adopt such a policy.
It’s been that way for the Cubans for a while now, but do you see anyone complaining about them?
Actually yes. People are complaining about all illegals. It is just that since most speak some form of Spanish, they are wrongly lumped together as Mexican. I do it, too. It’s wrong, but I still unwittingly do it.
Didn’t you get the memo? Liberty only applies to white, Christian males, and occasionally to their white Christian wives. But only if you got here in the last century.
Those who commit crimes are punished. Has nothing to do with liberty. You enjoy liberty until you no longer deserve it by virtue of being convicted or a crime.
SO……. if I sneak into your house, can I have your allowance (or chunk of your paycheck)? You should also feed me, and pay for me to go to the doctor when I get sick.
Or would you call the police because somewhere snuck into your house?
Great job of missing the point.
My question, again, is this: should unfettered immigration be illegal? I say no.
by not observing our own laws? How does one get there by your thinking? If I go to France, and try to work, it is damn near impossible. Why? Because they have very strong local laws that are enforced…and the French invented the Revolution, by they way.
how many laws did you break today? My guess is more than 3, 2 of which you knew you were breaking…just a guess though.
Explain the relevance.
(Broke zero I am aware of)
And your point is what?
If he’d been caught, he’d be punished.
Find me the US Code that says being in the country without proof of citizenship/visa/other permission is a crime. Just a heads up, it’s going to take you a while to find the law that doesn’t exist.
took me about 30 seconds:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/8/usc_sec_08_00001325—-000-.html
I agree that it’s a non-issue (those who argue economic harm aren’t really in touch with the facts…most undocs pay taxes, and support local economies, taking jobs that most people don’t want), but I don’t agree that we should just give away citizenships. My wife immigrated to the US legally, jumping through all of the hoops, and I don’t see why others should not have to do the same. Breaking the law should not be rewarded in the fashion that you’re suggesting.
I don’t have a stance on this issue, but I hate the “jobs we don’t want” argument. Maybe you don’t want them, but I am sure one of the many, many, many unemployed people in this country would be happy to have “jobs we don’t want” over not having a job at all.
Listen, I don’t exactly see a line of American english speaking white people lining up at every vegetable farm or corn detassling operation in the US looking for work.
It’s not like Immigrants hide in the bushes “Look there’s an American, lets take his job!”
Listen, there are other jobs that hire undocumented workers besides agricultural jobs, get a clue.
Have seen many legal americans (of all colors) working in the wheat fields, picking apples and pears, working bucking hay. Also have heard from many teenagers that they can’t get a job picking fruit because they are not Mexican. When the Foreman only speaks Spanish who hires only spanish speakers you get the picture
Or maybe us Americans need to stop asking for 3-4 dollars more than the immigrants. If this was your business, and you have a mexican guy, which is willing to work for 7.25 an hour, compared to an American asking for 10 bucks an hour, and both do the same quality work, who would you choose?
It is not the businesses job to make sure the fake ID’s and SS #’s are authentic, they aren’t ICE
If this was your business, and you have a mexican guy, which is willing to work for 7.25 an hour, compared to an American asking for 10 bucks an hour, and both do the same quality work, who would you choose?
The one who’s here legally.
and how would you go about knowing that? They bring in real SS #’s and ID’s…
There’s an 800 number for employers to call Social Security to check if the name matches the number. It’s printed in the IRS Income Tax booklet.
So market forces work for everything except labor, which needs to be kept artificially deflated by hiring illegal workers to fill jobs. See, in a sane system, the employers would have to pay more for labor until they could fill the slots.
I guess it’s perfectly fine for me to buy produce on the black market, then, since it’s in my interest to pay less for things whether I procure them legally or not.
That’s BS! We have large onion farms just outside of my hometown. At one time, every working class HS kid in town – white, black, Mexican – lined up during picking season. It got to the point the only ones getting hired were the Mexicans. Now, even the legal Mexicans can’t get hired.
Amen. Just because a bunch of snobby analysts think illegal immigrants are filling a job void just because they wouldnt want the same jobs means nothing. I know a lot of folks here in Arkanasas that would kill for all the roofing and restaurant jobs taken by folks that can barely speak enough of the language to communicate with the general public.
its like that here in fort smith as well.
“most undocs pay taxes, and support local economies, taking jobs that most people don’t want”
Yea, but they don’t pay as much ion taxes as citizens and their employer DEFINITELY doesn’t pay the portion of tax they would otherwise be responsible to pay. But go ahead and argue that sales tax compensates for FED, FICA, MED…taxes which the rest of us pay.
To be fair in case of Chipotle they did collect all the taxes (federal, state, social, medicare) while the workers are not eligible to collect any benefits in the future. I am not defending anybody here but just saying it works both ways.
Most of them just ratchet up the exemptions so a minimal amount is withheld from each check.
Who needs benefits? They can just walk into any hospital and get free care.
Yes, it seems silly for anyone to pay for health insurance.
They contribute NOTHING to the local economy, unlike a legal worker would. Most undocumented workers export their earnings above their living expenses, and they live as cheaply as they can, while landlords take advantage and shove as many as they can squeeze into illegal SROs. That doesn’t help anyone locally.
Uh, “undocumented” workers cannot be paying income tax, because a TIN/SSN is required, but being undocumented, they haven’t got one.
Also, the whole point of hiring illegals, is to pay them a pittance off the books.
The majority of illegal immigrants in this country are working on the books with a fake SS#. Therefore they pay into the system without ever getting anything back.
So, you support identity theft?
He said fake SS#, not stolen.
Seven years ago an illegal started using my SSN to do everything from get a job to pay taxes to try to get Medicaid benefits. This went on a few years. Was a bit of a hassle getting it straightened out.
Forgive me, as I may be out of touch with the facts, but have you ever heard of W-4 allowances?
Good way to avoid income tax deductions, but doesn’t work for Medicare and SS. It’s amazing how all the illegals have 10 dependents. I’ve reported a few when I was the accountant at a company who hired illegals. One of them had the balls to bring a paper for me to sign so his wife could get Medicaid for his pregnant wife. This paper had a different name and social security number than the one he was hired under. I told him I wouldn’t sign it as we didn’t have any employee by that name. I also called the woman who requested the information and told her of the name and number difference. She said to go ahead and change the name and number to his other one and sign it. What a total fuck up the whole system is. No, I didn’t sign anything. I gave it to my boss and told him he could be the one to sign and be responsible for the lie, not me.
Studies have proven they are a net benefit to Social Security collections due to their fraudulent SS#’s….
They are a draw on the local economies when you factor in their healthcare costs that go unpaid, the education of their children in our schools, and the fact they get welfare for their US born children.
Ask any teenager around here… they’d love to find a part time job at some fast food joint but the illegals already have those jobs.
Local economies are financed through sales and property taxes. Illegal immigrants pay sales taxes, and if they are renting, then the increased rental market improves property taxes collected.
In Florida the new governor just issued an executive order requiring all state agencies and state contractors to use the Federal E-verify system to check the validity of social security numbers of potential employees. The legislature is also considering a bill that would require all employers in the state to do the same.
I don’t know if this is the best way to stop illegal immigration, but I’m certainly willing to give it a try!
What kind of rock did this idiot crawl out from under?
The rock on the east coast that is funding all you Walmart shoppers in the fly over states.
And this comment explains more to us than you ever intended.
LOL at flyover states. It’d be pretty funny to see the Coastal Megalopolises make a go of it without the heartland. Pushing paper without any industry or agriculture to back them up.
In the interest of disclosure – I’m out of Chi-town… which probably isn’t so flyover (more layover if you ever have anything to do with the big airlines).
why don’t you tell that to my friends who are having a hard time getting hired anywhere. Experienced roofers and landscapers who get passed over in favor of a gaggle of undocumented workers. They all (undocumented workers) live in dilapidated houses down the street from the fancy Mcmansion of the landscaping owner.
I know this, because I recognize a few who got kicked out of the Taco Bell I worked at a few years ago, due to being unwilling or unable to show documentation.
Your unemployed friends probably should have gone to college, earned a degree and found careers that are less easily replaceable by inexpensive labor.
First off, no one said his friends didn’t go to college, there are plenty of unemployed with college degrees or more.
Second, going to college isn’t as easy as you might think. Just because Mommy and Daddy could pay for you to go to college, doesn’t mean it is like that for everyone.
Get off your high horse.
I’m someone who was lucky enough to have mom and dad pay for college, yet I’m not nearly as pretentious as you. Maybe you need to go back and learn some more.
2 posts, both sounding like a complete ________. You failed at trolling this time around. Next time, try to seem more genuine.
Just because someone disagrees with you, that doesn’t make them a troll.
When they use the most simplistic and ire inducing arguments it does.
Y’know, I had a retort a planned.
. You’ll twist my words anyhow…so why should i bother. Casting pearls before swine and all that jazz…
Sorry we all aren’t super cool graphic designers like you are.
Only people that are here illegally are willing to perform unskilled manual labor for significantly less than those that have made a career out of skilled manual labor. Those that learned a trade instead of going to college shouldn’t have to worry about illegals taking their jobs.
Just because landscaping and pouring concrete aren’t considered “desirable” to douchebags such as yourself that sit on their asses all day working a useless middle-management position for $45k/year doesn’t mean you have the right to look down upon those who do enjoy their pitiful meaningless careers fit only for uneducated retards.
(Full disclosure: I’m an 18-year-old first-year apprentice electrician making $25/hour and will be making $125k/year five years from now by working with my hands to help build massive libraries, hospitals, airports, and whatever else needs my services. Enjoy your pointless office job and don’t forget to get your TPS reports in on time. I’ll be over here making a lot of money doing something that actually matters.)
As more people get degrees, the degrees mean less and are worth less. Not worthless but worth less. The idea that a college degree is the cure all for individual economic problems is ludicrous, especially since illegal immigrants are getting large amounts of education money to get degrees in fields for which they will gladly work for less money. Either that, or go back to their home country and never re-pay a dime of the money. If you argue grants are not re-payable, sure they are. You re-pay them by becoming a productive, tax paying citizen. Also, many trades people worked long and hard through apprenticeships to become tradespeople.An apprenticeship is another form of post-secondary education and if you don’t believe it, try to make it through one. Now we have illegals claiming to be tradesmen with bogus documents who are putting hard working citizens out of work. They have also created a situation in many areas where new homes and buildings can’t get occupancy permits because of poor quality work. Its cheaper to hire someone to fix the poor workmanship than it is to hire someone to do it right in the first place!
I love people who claim to be “hard working” are the same lazy fucks who dropped out of high school.
1986… Reagan grants the first Amnesty… You should know your history before suggesting such a simple solution. All that amnesty did was to drive even more illegals into this country looking for the next amnesty.
The Reagan amnesty was reasonable. His administration’s failure to enforce immigration laws, and to improve the process where foreign workers could legally come here is the issue that is killing us to this day.
(To be fair, every administration after Reagan bears continuing responsibility for kicking this problem down the road, but our friends on the Right seem to have selective amnesia when discussing the causes of illegal immigration, especially when they contain the words employer, Republican, and Big Business).
I agree with anarkie below that you’re an obvious troll. You’ve got a lot of comments and replies below, and every single one of them is inciting, flaming, borderline offensive, and devoid of any actual argument or reasoning.
Try harder next time. I only continued to read your later comments for the humor value.
Trolls troll not because of any moral outrage or perceived “victory” but because they are sad simple people with internet access and a life the size of their brains, i.e. just shy of a field pea.
Trolling is a art.
If you are offended by my antagonistic tone, I apologize, but my responses are not out of character with the other comments being made here.
And as to actual argument or reasoning, I will summarize for you here:
1. Illegal immigrants are not competing for desirable jobs; they are not a threat to American citizens except for those who have not bothered educating themselves, who are stupid, or lazy. Education up through high school is free and yet many American citizens cannot even be bothered to achieve this minor milestone. Low cost public universities and community colleges are widely available and short of this, low cost student loans can help fund American citizens that fall short. Illegal immigrants, whether they come from South / Central America or Eastern Europe or Asia are not competing with workers in employment requiring a college education or better. They are engaging in unskilled service employment or low skilled manual labor; they work hard and are inexpensive making the services they provide less expensive for all American consumers.
2. Nearly every American citizen is descended from immigrants, many of whom were undocumented when they showed up on the shores of the United States, including those that arrived in Ellis Island. Mediterranean immigrants, particularly Italians came With Out Papers — entirely undocumented. The history of US immigration law in the United States has been the history of exclusion, the history of assessing the ‘whiteness’ of immigrants, and of preferring Western Europeans over all other ethnic groups. And this speaks nothing to the fact that there already were native peoples living in this country prior to the arrival of even the oldest European families.
3. Illegal immigrants embody the very values Americans cherish: hard work, entrepreneurship and the pursuit of a better life. The struggle arriving here has already presorted the most driven, most successful individuals; they will work hard and they and their children will fortify our nation with the same creativity, determination and desire for liberty that each of our ancestors had in founding and building the modern United States.
So please, excuse me if I seem a bit vitriolic in my responses, but the responses here are such blatantly racist, uninformed, xenophobic nonsense they could only come from Americans I am ashamed to share nation with so civility is not necessarily a priority.
You miss the problem that illegal immigration causes. These low paid workers may be taking undesirable jobs, but they are also taking a huge toll on our social services. They receive free medical care, free education for their children, etc. We simply can’t afford to let anyone come to America and drain the system.
Two things:
1) Where is this free healthcare? I am legal and I could use some free healthcare. Heck, I have an in-law who is a physician in a free community clinic but you could hardly call what they do free healthcare. Community clinics just do enough to try and keep people out of hospitals. Are you talking about people showing up in Emergency Rooms? You know what would help that? A decent healthcare system like the rest of the modern world has.
2) You know how other countries deal with “drains on the system?” They have a VAT that everyone pays to supply the population with social services like health care. Yes, a Value Added Tax. The brilliance of this system is so simple. This solution is so elegant the Right in this country could never hope to grasp it. But it works because then even illegals pay for their care since they can’t escape paying a VAT.
I know, I know, I am a crazy socialist. Whatever.
The healthcare the receive is free because they fall into one of 2 categories: either they are in custody, in which case the government pays for them as they do everybody else, or they are not in custody, but are under the radar. EMS/Hospitals are obliged to provide care whether or not someone can/will pay, so if they get care and then don’t pay, the care is essentially “free”. It’s not like their credit can be dinged or they can be taken to court…
So why not acknowledge the problem and do what the rest of the industrialized world does and pay for social services with a VAT? If you live in this country, legal or not, you would pay the VAT. Why is this so hard for us to understand?
Its hard for people to understand VAT because its more complex than a four second Bill O’Reilly sound byte and therefore beyond their level of comprehension. Its the same reason the poors are scrambling for minimum wage careers wrapping burritos instead of working in a science lab or programming computers or designing new technologies.
I actually agree with your original non-issue comment, but I do have to take exception to your assertion (#1 in this list) that many people are unemployed because of lack of education. I am married to someone who has multiple graduate degrees, including a law degree all from top 20 schools and she can’t find a job.
Also, low student loan costs? When did you go to school the 70s? The reality is that even federal student loans have gotten out of hand. When we sent my wife to law school we managed to procure a private loan for some of our costs, the APR in that loan is half of what the Federal and University loans are. The days of those great 2 and 3% loans are long gone, thanks largely to Clinton and Reagan.
So education is no guarantee at all, my wife would love to work a retail job at this point, but what manager in their right mind would hire an attorney?
All that said though, I don’t care about illegal immigrants. I know I benefit from them more than they cost me. But then again I have brown skin, so I guess I find them less threatening.
Mostly Clinton! It was Clinton’s legislation that made it virtually impossible to discharge student loans when your overpriced education turned into a $12/hr job. It was also Clinton who pushed legislation that allowed student loans to have interest rates that were no longer tied to the cost of the money. It is cheaper to get a standard loan, if you can, than a student loan. It was also a Clinton initiative that opened up financial aid programs to privately operated diploma mills. I can go on and on, but it is pointless because these policies which are bankrupting thousands, will not change. Nor will anyone accept the fact that it was Clinton. Even most who know, always tie it back to Reagan. Sort of like Reagan and Bush Sr. get blamed for NAFTA.
::Applause::
Not competing for desirable jobs! Are you nuts? I left the food-service industry in the 80s because illegal immigrants took what was a very decent way to make a living and drove it into the ground. In 1982 I was making $400/wk as a line cook. By ’86, my pay was down to under $300/wk as a managing chef at a country club. Today, chefs make decent money, but line cooks are making about 1982 wages in many restaurants and to do that, they put in 60 hr. weeks. This is all the result of illegal immigrants and the restaurant industry is not shy about it.
My son is a certified welder with two technical diplomas, outside of the few and far between union jobs, pay averages around $12 to $15/hr. Not long ago, it was over $20. Supposedly there is still a demand, but because of the ability to hire illegal immigrants, not just illegal Mexican immigrants, wages have taken a huge dump!
I have been turned down on three paralegal jobs because I cannot speak Spanish. That is another effect illegal immigrants are having on very desirable jobs. They might not be taking them all but because of their numbers, other jobs are being effected.
This makes about as much sense as “How to improve employee morale–fire all the unhappy employees.” Or maybe my sarcasm detector is broken.
If you make it easy to gain legal resident status, then “illegal workers” become, instead, “noncitisen taxpayers”.
They’re only tax payers if they can get a job. Otherwise they’re just another strain on the system.
This may be a nonissue to you. Illegal immigration is clearly very much an issue to many Americans, which you know very well. You are simply being deliberately obtuse.
…I smell a troll
Anyone ever read the Flame Warriors bit from redwing? Google it and check out the Ideologue.
Don’t respond to this dude. He is literally delusional in his arrogance. Google his forum name and it is easy to see he is a whiny graphic designer from the suburbs. He has a website in which he describes making phallic sand castles in front of unknown little kids (WTF?) and complains that his boss makes more money then him. I thought he might be a troll but if you read his personal website it is clear this guy literally is not associated with reality.
That was accomplished during the Reagon administration when they basically gave a blanket amnesty. Anyone enter illegally now ought to be treated as doing something illegal. Any employer hiring without checking ought to be heavily fined.
And when these non residents can’t get jobs who supports them? Who pays for their children to go to school? Who covers their medical? Where do they get the money for rent and food?
Oh, WE’RE supposed to pay for it? No thank you.
Keep in mind that the primary reason that US companies hire illegal workers is because they can pay them less than legal citizens. Once they become legal and go on the books they will very quickly lose their appear (and jobs)
This is an illogical answer to a big problem. thsounds like you do not have a clue as to what is ging on with the illegal immigrants
Excuse me…I need to go bring Chipotle some business.
I almost went there at lunch… may have to make a special trip tomorrow.
Seriously, why didn’t I check out consumerist before my lunch break?
If they aren’t American citizens, aren’t they required to carry their work papers on them as part of the legal immigration rules?
If so, why would they need more time to prove that they are legal? Heck, I guess they should be lucky they weren’t arrested for identity theft.
Even if they didn’t have the proper paperwork on their person when they showed up to work that day, they could have been given a reasonable time (24-48 hours) to produce the documentation, or request a reasonable extension in extenuating circumstances. I would imagine that the work permits should be treated like a passport. You know where yours is, but you don’t carry it with you every day.
With the difference that their card is required to be on their person when residing/working here. Your passport is required to be on your person when traveling. When you go to the airport, security doesn’t say “Go ahead and get on your flight, but remember to show your passport in the next 24-48 hours.”
It’s not “papers”, it’s a card.
And yes. Not just to work, but ALL THE TIME. It’s a misdemeanor not to carry your card ALL THE TIME.
From the summary:Chipotle also said that employees who claimed they were legal residents were given more time to produce papers
So, in my book, they were given time to go find their card, which they didn’t have on them in violation of the law. I’m guessing quite a few “lost” theirs and are now complaining that they were let go. Okay.
I guess it’s okay to forget your drivers license while driving too. Sure, you can go home and get it. No penalties, right?
I wonder what the average number of workers there are per card?
Actually where I’m from that’s a thing. Or at least it was when I was a teenager. You had 24 hours to produce your license at the police station if you were pulled over and one was requested. That may be different now, I do not know.
Yeah and since the card costs $400+ to get replaced, you can be damned sure I follow that law. My card stays safely in my wallet all the time.
Well that’s fucking stupid.
I work in Norway, and I never carry around my passport (it has my visa) except when I’m going to be flying or otherwise traveling out of the country.
It’s not fucking stupid. It’s the size of a driver’s license, which if you’re driving, you need to have on you as well. Whinging about it is more fucking stupid. When I fly just to another state I carry my passport on me, and don’t complain about the size of it.
It’s easy to carry the card, and it’s too fucking easy to get away without following the rules.
Not every non-citizen is on a “card”. I’m on a 3 year working visa, and do not need to carry my papers (yes, papers) around with me ever unless I am traveling out of the country.
Cuando regrese de México, nunca voy a ir a Chipoltes nuevamente.
I translated this using an online translator. This is what it gave me.
“When Mexico return from, never I am going to go to Chipoltes again.”
Wait, you’re avoiding Chipotle because they followed the law?
Do one better and don’t come back at all.
My question is….how’d they get hired in the first place without being able to prove that they were legal. Someone missed the boat and I guess the managers need to be taught what requirements are needed to hire a person, no matter what their origin.
It’s a $10,000 fine per offense to the manager who hired an illegal alien. That’s why when I managed a restaurant I never hired anybody or filled out their I-9, I always let some other chump take the fall.
This is a perfect example of CYA’ing when you find yourself between a rock and a hard place. I appreciate your solution.
It’s not hard, employers never check unless they’ve been burned before.
There are many ways around the requirements and I’m sure Chipotle did the required I-9 Form within 3 days. Shared IDs is one way, fake IDs is another. Using birth certificates from Puerto Rico was another (a brilliant way, I might add). Most employers are taught not to question too much for fear of being accused of discriminating (e.g., the picture on the Green Card doesn’t look quite like him…but I’m not going to question it). There’s an underground economy for official documents and many of the workers probably took advantage of it.
when I worked for hotels I noticed that twice a year all the nametags on the housekeeping staff would change. When I asked why i learned that the hotel would get paperwork back from the feds twice a year that listed every invalid SS# we had for our employees, we were then given a time frame in which we either had to fire them, pay the fine or resubmit the paperwork with the “errors” corrected. So we would fire them all, and then re-hire them under the new fake ID’s and have another 6 months until the whole process began again.
From the south Florida get a job ID handbook?
So now the burritos will be less authentic? Great.
Less authentic than a starch-filled ball of starch?
Let me get this straight…. Chipotle is actually working to follow the laws. Isn’t this a good thing? This is certainly better than the megabanks who have committed mortgage fraud.
And, when will people get it right? It’s “illegal immigrants”, not “undocumented workers”.
Well, clearly YOU think its a good thing. Other people believe otherwise. I don’t know if you knew this, but there is a bit of a kerfuffle going on about the best way to handle non-legal citizens working in the USA. I think some people believe that the laws of man are not inherently flawless, and thus fundamentally disagree with any negative action taken against humans who are affected by laws of man that may be flawed. in this case, the disagreement is taking the form of protests, in the other instances, it takes the form of trying to change the law via legislation.
So you think Chipotle should risk its business by breaking the law?
Did I say they should?
Non-legal? Is that anything like “illegal”?
Yes, you can replace my usage of non-legal with “illegal”, “people breaking the laws of the U.S. or A.” or whatever else works for you. My point would still stand regardless of which label tickles you finest.
your point can barley hold it’s head up much less stand, no mater what label you desperately try to avoid.
There are laws in place to protect this country from rampant diseases, and crime (like cuba dumping all it’s criminals here in the 70′s and 80′s), and protect our economy.
There are legal ways of following those laws and entering this country. Those that make the choice to break the law have done so willingly and must face the consequences when thy get caught.
I choose to drive faster than the speed limit on many of our fine highways and interstates. When and if I do get caught I have to pay a fine and higher insurance premiums. That is my penalty for choosing to disregard a law. No one protests on my behalf.
I believe if you followed SuperSnackTime’s line of logic in your speeding matter; SuperSnackTime would argue that the speed limit should be raised, simply because if enough people speed well then that means the speed limit is obviously wrong. And therefor to stop people from speeding, we should raise the speed limit.
Where in reality, if we raise the speed limit in an effort to reduce speeding… well it just means people will drive faster and we end up with the same number of speeders. Its a never ending cycle. Example, In states that raised the freeway speed limits from 55, where people drove 65-70 in many cases, to 65 simply gave people incentive to drive 75-80.
until our speed approaches the speed of light, then we can’t go any faster. at which point we will all be moving at the same speed, and that would be bad, or cool, or something.
“your point can barley hold it’s head up much less stand”
Correct AND funny as hell +1000 FTW
No,it doesn’t. The law is the law for now. It needs to be enforced.
If they’re illegal, they’re not citizens. Your argument is a total FAIL.
I am a liberal Democrat who believes in helping the less fortunate who are citizens or are here with legal documentation.
But if you’re here illegally, you deserve NOTHING from the rest of us except a ride to the border. Period.
“some people believe that the laws of man are not inherently flawless, and thus fundamentally disagree with any negative action taken against humans who are affected by laws of man that may be flawed.”
Sounds like a convoluted way to say, “We should only obey the laws we feel like obeying”. That’s a bad thing. Unfortunately, there are a lot of businesses who took that attitude, and look at where we are at today.
BTW: Both of my parents were legal immigrants to this country. I was born in the USA.
I have a co-worker that is a legal immigrant. Illegal immigration pisses him off, as he and his family followed all laws and rules needed and respect and love this country. Immigration is possible. Just do it right. If you can’t do it right…GTFO
The best way to handle criminals? Why is that hard to understand? Ship them back to their legal countries or put them in prison. Personally, I’d say ship them off, so we don’t have to pay extra for their food and care.
It should be ok for me to just row a boat to Australia, find a job and go to work without following any of their procedures? I thought not.
I don’t think that anyone has any problems with peaceful protests or lobying to change the laws where the laws can be proven as flawed, however if you enter a country in an attempt to somehow benefit (job, insurance, lower crime etc.) then you have no reason to not attempt to do so legally and pay the necessary fees for the proper visas or permits to legally work or live in a country. If you choose to violate those rules, you either can be thrown in jail or deported back to your own country.
If you or anyone else wants to change the laws, fine, but there is a proper process to change those laws, and you can’t simply ignore the laws because someone thinks they are not fair to people who are not citizens of the country.
Sorry, but those opinions are not valid. You cannot criticize the law here as these are not US citizens. We do not have to give illegals any rights.
Not quite true. There are some fundamental rights given to anyone who steps foot in the United States. But I’m pretty sure I understand what you were aiming at.
Thank you. It’s hard to get Constitution-reading tea enthusiasts to understand what they’re reading some times. The rights of citizens are specifically spelled out in the Constitution. Other rights are for everyone in the country.
I don’t get to work without showing my papers. Why should someone else?
There is no “inequality” here. They’re just being subjected to the same BS as the rest of us.
Last time I checked the laws of man were the only laws we have.
No, it is undocumented workers. They were fired for failing to present the proper documentation saying they were able to work in this country. They were not convicted of breaking any laws in court, so they are not “illegal” anything.
Semantics, doing something you are not allowed to do is defined as doing something Illegal.
In this case acquiring a job that they should not have legally been able to obtain. Either from not having the proper visa or not being in the country legally.
Just because you are not caught and charged with speeding, does not mean that its not an illegal act.
But that’s just it. We don’t know for a fact that all of the people fired really were working illegally.
Some of them may have been legal immigrants who just didn’t provide the paperwork fast enough for Chipotle. Maybe they should have had their card on them but forgetting your card at home is not the same thing as actually being an illegal immigrant. Think of it as the difference between getting caught driving when you forgot your license at home versus getting caught driving when you never had a license in the first place.
And some of them may not have been immigrants at all. If you’re not an immigrant, you don’t have a green card to produce. But then you have to somehow prove that you’re a citizen. A driver’s license or state ID won’t help since you can legally get those even if you’re an undocumented immigrant. Can every US citizen produce their birth certificates on demand? Is it the long form? Some birth records don’t even have the baby’s name on it so maybe those aren’t good enough.
Pocahontas should have asked to see some documentation.
I’m pretty sure the illegal immegrants that just got fired don’t speak Navajo, Arapahoe, Natchez, etc.
Obvious troll is obvious.
Or perhaps she should have united the many tribes of America and established a government under the name of the United Native Tribes of America, established borders, declared sovereignty, and become recognized as an independent nation by other countries. That way, when foreigners came to America, she could have told them to GTFO.
So you are saying that they should have proactively done a bunch of stuff to follow a set of conventions and rules that were only utilized by people that they didn’t even know existed? I fail to see the logic. I also fail to see how that would have saved them in any case because we all know that no European country has ever invaded another one…so I’m sure they wouldn’t have bothered those nice brown people once they declared themselves to be a country.
The point is that ianmac is making a false equivalency. When the first Europeans came to America there were no internationally recognized sovereign governments on the continent. So when they settled on land here they were breaking no laws. The United States on the other hand is recognized as a sovereign nation, capable of making its own laws and securing its own borders. One of those laws sets out specific guidelines for who may enter this country and how. To compare illegal immigration today to American settlers 300+ years ago is just ludicrous.
She was here first. She should have asked for papers.
Irrelevant argument. And its just as silly now as when it was stated the 1st time.
this would only be relevant if the settlers were trying to become part of the tribe , of which they obviously were not. The settlers of the time would be better described as a conquering force rather then immigrants to the new world.
so until you see immigrants coming to this country with the intent of conquering it to making it their own, stop making this silly argument.
And that should be a lesson showing we shouldn’t make the same mistake.
Shouldn’t the employees have proven they were authorized to work in the US as a part of the hiring process?
They probably did, using fake or borrowed documents.
They probably did, using fake or borrowed documents.
I disagree, most employer’s simply trust the “Yes” box being checked, until they’ve been burned. They don’t ask for proof.
what percentage of employees was this?
According to TFA, Chipotle has about 1,200 employees in Minnesota. The percentage will depend, of course, on whether you believe the 350 or 700 number.
Either way it’s a significant percentage, from 25% to more than 50%. (It reminds me of Sarah Silverman’s joke about 6 million or 60 million, but I digress). Such high percentages should help others realize that having this many people working in a foreign language, under the table, without legal authorization, creates significant distortions in the economy.
It doesn’t take more than a day to prove that you are legal. You go home and get your birth certificate. If not, you call up the state you live in and get a copy sent to you.
You have to order one from the state and or city you were born in and send them a check to pay for it and proof that you are who you say you are. If you were a us citizen born abroad then you would need to contact the state department and also send them a check and proof.
Depends on the state. In Texas if you were born in the state any County records office or City Records office can print you a certified copy of your birth record on the spot…for a nominal fee.
you say that like getting your birth certificate is trivial. I live in California and because mine was amended the only place that has it is Vital Records in Sacramento. You have to mail in a notarized form and wait 6 weeks…
But it’s your responsibility to always have proof of citizenship when you’re looking for a job. So ideally you would have taken care of that at 18, or your parents would have taken care of it when you were still a child.
So, what if you can’t find your birth certificate? Or you can’t find your social security card? I know, you’re perfect, but I’m not. Stuff happens. Or the docs were destroyed in a house fire, and in all the rest of the kerfuffle, you forgot to replace them. How often are you going to even think of your birth certificate?
Then your employer asks for proof of citizenship. Within 48 hours. Good luck on that. I can apply to get replacements, but in most states, it will take several weeks.
Then you don’t get the job. Sometimes you have to act like an adult and have proper paperwork.
Sorry, but you have to take responsibility for things at some point. There will be the odd unique circumstances (going in to work the night after your house burned down), but in general it is your responsibility to keep track of your documents. I keep a scanned copy of all mine on an encrypted USB drive I carry with me and all originals in a safety deposit box (along with a backup disc).
So “stuff happened” to between 350 and 700 workers all at the same time so that none of them could produce the proper paperwork asked of them?
Listen, if your employer asks for proof of citizenship w/in 48 hrs, and you give them a copy of the insurance claim payment form showing your house burned down, and a copy of the note from the Dept of V. Recs saying that they’ve got your request – chances are your employer’s going to give you the time to get the stuff.
But in this case, you probably had a bunch of people with forged docs all using similar, or the same #’s and Homeland Security finally matched things and said “hey hey now…” so Chipotle gave them the time to prove otherwise, and when they didn’t – they got fired.
I have no problem with legal immigration – hell, it’s how my great, great, whatever’s got here. But do it LEGALLY. If you come illegally, don’t be surprised if and when you get the boot…
Other countries around the World would just shoot them on sight. These fools are lucky they got a ride back to the border…
That assumes you were board in the US, there are lots of legal ways to become a citizen without being born here, like being born to US parents whilst their out of the country, let alone other legal migration methods.
Oh no, nobody gives a damn about your documents. There is a process set up by the Homeland Security. You have to send them your name and they have to match it with a valid Social Security number. My mothers employer made a typo in her name and now no matter how many times they resubmit the request (with a valid name) the response always comes negative. Now she is in danger of getting terminated – and she has a goddamn US passport!
Since we’re talking Minnesota, I assume they’re from Canada, right?
Cause if there are Mexicans freezing their butts off in Minnesota just to work at Chipotle, I say let ‘em stay.
Just in case you are really that dumb, the company headquarters is not where these workers were, they were in the actual restaurants … the ones that are all over the country, including (and especially) in the SouthWest.
Can you read? “Chipotle fired between 350 and 700 undocumented employees at its Minnesota restaurants.”
Reading fail…
Plus, Chipotle is headquartered in Denver, not Minneapolis.
Well I guess there’s openings now for legal Americans to apply.
Didn’t ya hear? chipolte is closing all of these locations because no American is willing to work these types of jobs. Poor, poor Chipolte, all those stores but no Americans are willing to work there…only illegals.
It’s a shame that Chipolte will have to close all of these stores because of their inability to find ANY American to work these types of jobs…a real shame. I hope the market works itself out on this one.
I’m sure there are plenty of people who would love to work at Chipotle and bask in the essence of adobo seasoning and cilantro rice.
Um…what are you talking about? I know plenty of people who would be willing to work a job like that. Food service jobs aren’t necessarily an ideal place to make a career, but they are great places for high school and college students to get their feet wet in the job market.
You don’t have to be a genius to work a register, so why not just recruit local high school and university students?
YoKo, you might want to actually use the /sarcasm tag next time.. Some will apparently completely miss it otherwise.
I think, but I might be wrong, that the author might have wanted to include a sarcasm tag on this one.
The jobs were filled before the article hit the paper. From TFA:
“Chipotle has apparently replaced the terminated employees. Its Minnesota employment was 1,200 both before and after the firings, said spokesman Chris Arnold.”
article was fine until you asked “What do you think is the most effective way to regulate the employment of illegal residents?”
Great, so Rosa at my Chipotle will no longer be there? No one else makes my burrito the right except Rosa.
Where is Rosa?!?!
When you find her you can hire her as your personal chef…at least until someone reports you to ICE.
I applaud Chipotle, and wish the government would investigate more businesses. Reason? 10% unemployment rate. If the US were to throw out all (and I mean every last one) of the illegal immigrants, what would the real unemployment rate look like. Then, if the workforce needed more people we would open the borders back up to those that took the time to fill out the papers and come here legally. Any business not cooperating would have repercussions placed on them by the government. And the branch of the government that would need to be opened/expanded to handle the influx of paperwork and investigation? More jobs for a beleaguered work force.
Unfortunately, enforcement costs money and there seems to be a movement right now to keep the cost of running the government under control.
It’s a spend money to make money situation. Make a little deficit, get the enforcement ramped up, and the efforts will make money because the parts of the economy that the illegal workforce is bearing on will be eliminated. But what do I know, I’m a hillbilly from Kentucky who went to school for IT.
Yeah, cuz ramping up spending on enforcement is working *so well* down at the border right now.
So we should just cancel all the laws because they’re too expensive to enforce? Cool, I’ll just stop paying all those pesky taxes and the government can close and go home.
It’s always been a tradeoff…how much enforcement do you want to pay for? The poster said to throw ALL of them out. That would be cost prohibitive, just like catching every speeder. If you want super strict enforcement, it’s gonna cost extra.
I think RandomHookup was taking a swing at the Tea Party rather than supporting your idea.
There are probably plenty of staff on the payroll to enforce existing regulations, but the US could simplify things by following other countries and giving employers jail time. That deterrence would reduce illegal immigration to a marginal issue (which of course no politician of either party wants).
Do they do this in Europe? I noticed lots of folks who seemed to be working under the table there.
PRECISELY!!!! Go after the employers whose business plan in undercutting the competition is to hire illegals immigrants.
The problem is that it wont work out so well, if they fire 700 illegals, they may only hire 50-100 legals in their place and then have them do the work of the 700 in order to keep the cost of doing business at the same level so they can maintain their profits.
Overall, it is bad for the business and bad for the new workers. While something needs to be done about this problem, now is not the time as with this recession/depression, it will only do more harm than good.
If a company is structured in a way where they need a certain number of workers and they are forced to fire a whole bunch of them because they don’t have a piece of paper. Then what will happen is they will hire more legal workers and then double their prices.
Imagine if this was to happen in the food industry, mainly the areas that produce the food that end up in the grocery store, (this industry largely uses illegal workers). Food prices will skyrocket and many people will not be able to afford it, it will hurt more people than it will help.
The system is flawed and making retaliatory changes will not fix the problem.
Damn Canadians, crossing the border illegally to work at Chipotle again.
+1 Thanks for the laugh!!!
Funny, I interned for the US Senator who put in the legislation that ended up creating the I-9 Form and his concern was the Canadians coming over to work in the oil fields.
I saw one crossing the Red River last week near Emerson-Pembina. Can you believe those icebacks? No doubt he had a coyote on the other side, ready to give him a ride down to Fergus Falls, where he’ll be working in Perkins before you know it – you betcha!
Worked with Canadiens who here illegally. They had to get married just to stay here. They also admitted to lying about their education as well(how or who verifys background in a foreign country?
I’ve also had people from England admit they were here illegally for years as well sucking up entry to mid level work. Nice folks but they were ILLEGAL, they think becoming ‘legal’ YEARS after the fact makes it all right.
When will this come to the construction industry.
it is tough competing when it cost me $80/hr and it cost other guys $20/hr for illegals.
Legalize IT, and THEM, and increase tax revenue…easy.
Unfortunately, Wal-Mart and Goldman are fighting tooth and nail!
I’m going to be honest, illegal workers make my life better. They do the jobs I don’t want to do for small amounts of money. I couldn’t care less if they were a citizen or not.
I’ll bet you love car thieves, too. They open up parking spots so you don’t have to search for one.
And murderers, because they make the lines at the DMV shorter.
And let’s not forget those pesky Nigerian scammers, because they give you email to read.
Wow, you must have a few gold medals with a leaping ability like that!
You should consider hiring a personal hitman. A personal hitman does those dirty jobs that aren’t quite worth doing yourself. 85% of our clients report an increased standard of living and sense of well-being after the first hit, and their satisfaction only increases with each additional hit ordered!
Can I hire one with PayPal?
Slaves would do those things for no money, and really improve your life.
Small amounts of money? $20/hour is small money for you? Niiiice.
When my brother bought a rock quarry in Texas a few years ago, he was advised to ask for ID (driver’s license, SS/green cards) when hiring and to accept whatever he was given. His responsibility was to have documentation for each employee but warned that if he questioned the authenticity, he could be sued. In other words, if Joe uses his cousin’s green card to get a job, my brother can’t be held responsible if INS shows up and busts Joe. Brother can only get in trouble if he doesn’t have any documentation on file for Joe.
At least 300 more jobs for US citizens! Good job Chipotle
Yeah, because there are so many native Minnesotans that want minimum wage jobs at Chipotle!
I dunno; every time we have one of those “jobs growth/wage stagnation” posts, every commenter seems to know an MBA “who doesn’t even get a callback for fast food!” There are commenters who tell their stories of applying for 200 shit jobs over two years and nothing.
So which is it?
Most effective way to regulate the employment of illegal residents….
How about verify legal status before employing them instead of waiting for an audit? Why did Chipolte get to conduct an audit and give 24 hours for employees to show proof of legal residency when there are factories being raided and illegals being rounded up en masse, anyway?
because the source material for the audit is held by the various state, local and federal government offices and isn’t available to Joe in accounting at Chipotle headquarters.
I’ll bet money that they do verify (probably not the e-verfiy system), though it’s really just a matter of checking a couple of documents and filing out a form. Fake documents or using your cousin’s ID are pretty easy ways to slip by someone who doesn’t validate government documents for a living, especially if it’s a restaurant manager with 200% annual turnover.
Yeah, its all fine and dandy until it is YOUR child, whose social security number has been stolen by “people just trying to work”. This has been a 3 year nightmare and it was going on for 3 years before then because it had never come up until she went to apply for her first job (at 16) . Then we found it had been used by 5 different people in California (we live in Texas) for work, to get utilities, apartments, etc. We still don’t have it all straightened out and everytime she applies for a job, bank account, etc- her number shows being used by other names. Try going through an automated service (at the credit bureaus) who won’t speak to you after you give the WRONG birthdate ( automated) than the one they have tied to that SS number. I am all for legal immigration but illegal criminals is another thing. This is not victimless. Plus, wouldn’t we rather have immigration by people that have something to give to this country (like the rules in Australia, Swedan, etc) does and not ones who will always take more than they put in.
Isn’t the US visa system (excluding people who come on family sponsored visas) set up like the other systems? It’s theoretically set up to bring in skills that are needed in the country like doctors and engineers. The types of folks that were fired at Chipotle wouldn’t have qualified for any legal immigration status (excluding a few agricultural ones and family unification).
… have you tried getting a NEW social security number for her?
Nope, they won’t give her a new one!! Frustrating.
Good. If you can climb a fence or cross a river and travel a 1000 miles to one of the coldest states in the US, then you can easily find another job. F them.
I live in Minnesota, and we have ALOT of illegal Mexicans. They take a lot of jobs from us. And not just the jobs that “no one else wants”, they take construction jobs, which is what my husband and his family use to do, making really good money while doing it to. Or factory jobs, which, in Minnesota at least, pay very well, and now fast food jobs? I know a lot of high schoolers, or college students that would love a part time job at a fast food restaurant. My sister in law has 3 kids with someone who was here illegally, and now she sits at home and collects $800 in free food stamps a month, free health care for her and the children, free day care, and housing assistance.
Those damn Canadians are invading! Pretty soon you’re going to have to understand French to live in Minnesota!!!
“Chipotle identified targets to interrogate based on a list from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.”
I think that is an overestimation of the effort the restaurant mgrs/HR folks would put into this. When I received a list from ICE’s predecessor, my first thought was “well, crap.” Then, I called/emailed/visited employees in identified and said, “we’ve gotten a notice that our records aren’t right and here’s a copy of what the government sent us. Will you please bring a copy of X to work in the next couple of days?” Some people refused on principle. I wasn’t paying an $1,100 / day fine, and they found success elsewhere.
Ever heard of an I-9?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback
prices of burritos will probably go up now that they’ll have to pay their workers fair legal wages.
Last I checked I need a social security number when I get a job. Doesn’t sound like it would be too hard to have a government database to check those numbers against.
If the name doesn’t match, or they have 40 or 50 jobs for one number, maybe that person isn’t a legal citizen.
Feds already have the eVerify system that does exactly that but the Democrats refuse to make it mandatory for ALL employers to verify documentation before hiring and they do little to punish employers that are caught hiring illegals.
Geez….it almost makes me wonder whether Democrats are whores for the Hispanic vote….???
/republican
Chipotle employes 1200 people in MN. 350 – 700 were illegal. REALLY? I could see a few per restaurant but that’s like 25-50+% of your employees.
Most low-paying industries hire illegals preferentially. Something like 75% of agricultural laborers are illegal migrants. It’s all unofficially sanctioned by the US government.
I’m thinking that if and when the TSA and the INS & the rest of the alphabet agencies ever get to the point that an employer can (without jumping through software and site related hoops) go online or via the telephone, submit a name and SS number and get back a “Hire or No Hire” doc from the government it might really slow down the numbers of illegals being employed.
They are following the laws because there must have been a tip on a raid or something. They didn’t follow laws when they hired now they are following laws. HMM. Here is a way to settle it, lets see how about this; police our boarder, make it harder for them to cross like in outher countries, stop with the anchor babies and the welfare.
Other than a few examples I can think of, it’s harder to get into the US from the South than getting into most countries. The EU has a horrible immigration problem with illegals from Albania, India, Africa. What “tough to enter” countries did you have in mind?
Japan, for one.
They’ll come around if the old:young ratio over there keeps going the way it is now.
It doesn’t help that they invaded most of their neighbors about a generation ago and seem to have some issues with certain kinds of outsiders.
Mexico?
Pardon me, I need to go apply at Chipotle due to the sudden need of qualified employees there.
WOW and that’s just Minnesota!
That’s not even the southern states!
Well, as long as no one in the United States is willing to pay more for any product they consume, might as well make them all legal.
Why would the pay any money to someone who fake their documents?
I am appalled that the government did not work with chipotle to arrest these people.
Agreed, this did nothing to fix the problem. Letting these people go, with no repercussions or penalties, just means that these “ex” employees will now just move on to other jobs and start the process all over again.
It’s not EVEN a bandaid solution.
Personally?
Screw this “illegal” stuff. Make it easy as hell to get a legal residency. Then charge non-citisens a slightly increased tax rate.
Win-win: the “illegals” could then avail themselves of legal protections, especially minimum wage rates, overtime rules, OSHA regulations, and so forth. Meanwhile, our government gets an increased tax base with which to pay for various basic public services (like police, fire departments, road maintenance, and schools).
Many don’t want legal status for tax reasons alone. It’s all about taking that US money back.
Why are they in MN? I can see living in border towns or states….but MN is a far piece away.
Yes, they work…but would it not be better for them to do so at home?
Minnesnowta has had an enviably high standard of living for an American state – an educated workforce, high wages, high quality services and amenities, and a more progressive stance towards social services like healthcare than most other states. If you can stand being cold and snowy for over a third of the year, then you might like it. Undocumented workers are there because they make more money that they can send back home. Mexico relies heavily on the $18 billion that is sent back to Mexico from other countries.
Thing is, the undocumented workers in MN will have the same effect there that they’ve had everywhere – their easy availability will drive down wages for everyone else in all sorts of fields.
knowingly employ an illegal, lose your business license for 30 days.
do it again, 90 days, third time you lose it for a year.
Sorry, but if you lied to get a job you should expect be discharged when you’re caught lying.
…. they were.
Nonetheless, they DID the work, and would have standing to sue for denied wages. It’s cheaper for Chipotle to just pay them, than pay for lawyers to defend against a few hundred suits.
Good for them, with record unemployment how about we do this for all companies!
It’s no fun being an illegal alien…..
Yippee Chipotle!
If you are here illegally you have no legal rights. Do things legally then you have rights. Rather simple, or should be rather simple to understand.
And wrong. I’m with you in spirit, but that’s really, really wrong.
so you can just kill illegal aliens? I don’t think you’ve thought this all the way through.
Once you are on this side of the line and you behave you get to stay.
The real problem IMO is that they had 700 illegals employed in the first place.
Welcome to the new world, may I see your documentation please? Old news people, it’s part of a requirement by the HSA to do online verification for ALL EMPLOYEES. Chipotle must be new to the online requirements and are playing catch up. I’ve had to do this for three years for all new hires. We went through a similar process updating employee records when the program launched. It’s not about Chipotle being the bad guy, it’s about the employees not providing the proper documents. If they were here legally they would DEFINITELY know where their papers were.
Is E-Verify mandatory now? According to Homeland Security (http://www.dhs.gov/files/programs/gc_1185221678150.shtm), it’s still voluntary for most employers.
Ilegals have no rights to anything but a ride to the border, and back to where they came from, so far as I’m concerned. they broke the law to get here, and their very existence within the border is breaking the law, thus they should be subject to arrest and deportation, no questions asked. Get in line and apply to come here legally, and quit sending money back to other countries, as so many do, we need it here!
The reality is that almost none of the people here illegally are well educated enough to qualify for the programs to come here legally (except for a few agri visa programs). They can apply all they want, but the only way to get here is illegally (unless they marry someone who’s here legally). Not condoning that they come here, just stating the situation that most of these folks are facing.
I always thought that looking for a better life was one of the founding grounds of the USA.
The only “original” USA citizens are native americans.
Most of the present citizens of the USA were illegal immigrant and/or people who flew from war, famine, religious persecutions or deportees and many of them send money back to their relatives in their original countries.
They helped the global economy to survive, USA included.
First of all, Native-Americans were not citizens of the US as the US did not exist until nearly 300 years after settlement began. Secondly, many choose to remain non-citizens and are tribal citizens. Thirdly, immigration has been regulated almost since the beginning of our nation in some manner. We actually have fairly liberal immigration laws compared to 100 years ago when Ellis Island was at its peak.
Nobody argues immigrants built this nation. Many of the same concerns were brought up about the Irish, Italians, Chinese, Slavs and many other ethnic groups. But they chose to assimilate into our culture demand that we demand we bend to them.