In 2001, authorities arrested an estimated 100 illegal immigrants at Wal-Mart stores in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and Missouri. Last year, on Oct. 23, federal agents raided 60 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states, netting 245 immigrants who were placed in deportation proceedings. ICE said the workers came from 18 different nations, including 90 from Mexico, 35 from the Czech Republic, 22 from Mongolia and 20 from Brazil.
Officials said at the time of the raids the investigation involved wiretaps that revealed Wal-Mart executives were aware that the subcontractors used illegal workers. Once the raid began, Wal-Mart told its executives to preserve documents. Federal agents didn't wait and moved in on part of the company's Bentonville headquarters, taking boxes from the office of a midlevel executive.
So Wal-Mart execs knew the subcontractors used undocumented workers. What happened to the subcontractors? According to the Times,
12 janitorial contractors that worked for Wal-Mart had agreed to forfeit $4 million to the government and to plead guilty to criminal charges of employing illegal immigrants.
And what of the workers - they got deported. You can read about some of the workers here.
Some of the workers sued Wal-Mart. The company's response?
Essentially, the company says the lawyers representing the plaintiffs are hungry vultures preying on unfortunate immigrants.
Pot, meet kettle.
The Times has more on the workers' lawsuits:
Wal-Mart continues to face a federal class-action lawsuit in New Jersey asserting that it and its contractors had conspired to violate racketeering laws. The lawsuit says that more than 10,000 illegal immigrant janitors were used at Wal-Mart stores and that they were virtually never paid time-and-a-half for overtime.
"It's outrageous that this could occur in the early 21st century," said James L. Linsey, the janitors' main lawyer in the case. "They generally worked seven nights a week, 364 days a year, and they were often locked in the stores. Now that the federal criminal investigation has been laid to rest, it's time for Wal-Mart to focus on the individuals who were systematically exploited and to consider what amount of reparations is appropriate."
