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Investigators, law firm look into claims of nonpaymentYakima Herald-Republic
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U.S. Fact Sheet Immigrant labor law practices
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YAKIMA, Wash. -- It's a frequently told story among illegal immigrants: An employer refuses to pay workers after they've finished a job. Fearing deportation, workers say nothing and disappear.
Rarely do such rumors make it any further.
But earlier this week, after a masonry subcontractor said he wouldn't pay employees who were here illegally for their work at the Wal-Mart construction site in West Valley, federal investigators and a nonprofit law firm decided to get involved.
Their stance? Employers must pay employees for hours they already worked, regardless of their legal status.
"That cannot be used as a reason to not pay these people," said Jeannine Lupton, a regional spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Labor, which has opened an investigation into the company laying the foundation for Yakima's second Wal-Mart store.
The case brings to light what immigrant advocates call a rarely reported trend -- one believed to be growing.
"With jobs so scarce, employers who want to chisel workers out of their wages are in a good place," said Becky Smith, a lawyer in the Olympia office of the National Employment Law Project. "People are afraid to complain about all sorts of conditions at work because jobs are so precious, even awful jobs."
There are no statistics that show how many illegal immigrants are victims of wage theft; It's impossible to track incidents that go unreported.
But on a near daily basis, Smith said, legal aid offices like hers across the country get calls from workers who have not been paid.
"And we've seen a huge uptick in the number of employers who claim that they don't have to pay unauthorized workers," she said. "Of course, immigrant status is no defense to a wage claim. If it were, all employers would hire unauthorized workers and only unauthorized workers."
The nonprofit Columbia Legal Services is investigating the case on behalf of at least one employee who is an illegal immigrant.
A spokeswoman for the state Department of Labor & Industries in Olympia could not confirm whether her agency was also looking into the case. But, Elaine Fischer said, a similar complaint of unpaid wages had been filed against Standard Structures last month.
She said legal status comes up occasionally in wage claims, but "people are afraid to go to a government agency for help if they are not here legally. They may be more inclined to drop the case rather than pursue it."
On Tuesday, Mead Crowell of Arkansas-based Standard Structures acknowledged that he was late in paying about two-dozen employees. He apparently owed the masonry workers three weeks of back pay.
In an interview with the Yakima Herald-Republic, Crowell said he'd recently discovered that some of his employees were illegal immigrants. He said he just learned that through E-Verify -- a federal system employers can use to check whether new hires are legally authorized to work in the United States.
"We can't legally pay these guys unless they are legitimately authorized to work," Crowell said Tuesday.
On Wednesday, he said he would pay all his workers once immigration questions were ironed out with federal officials.
A spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services -- the federal agency that operates the E-Verify System -- explained that employers can use E-Verify on a voluntary basis. In Washington, about 1,500 employers use the system on a total of 5,324 sites.
"Our computer is going to look at that information and 96 percent of the time it's going to shoot back to you in a matter of seconds," Sharon Rummery said.
But employers can only use the system within three days of hiring a person, she said. The masonry workers in Yakima had been working at the site for about two months.
"You're not going to run through all your current employees, just your new hires," Rummery said, adding that she could not find Standard Structures in the employer database.
According to the main contractor at the Wal-Mart job site on Nob Hill Avenue, all employees working on the site were believed to be legally authorized workers. Their I-9 paperwork -- apparently some of it fraudulent -- were processed through Wal-Mart's standard procedures, said site supervisor Jack Huff.
On Wednesday, Wal-Mart spokeswoman Michelle Bradford said, "We follow all federal and state laws and regulations regarding verification of identity and work authorization. In turn, we expect our third-party vendors to follow those same laws and regulations."
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been revised to correctly identify the federal agency that operates the E-Verify System. It is U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
* Read the U.S. Department of Labor's stance on investigating wage claims by illegal immigrants.
They ALL should be paid for work done. And if they're an illegal alien, they should be turned over to ICE and deported. Once again we should not be picking and choosing what laws with be enforced. That is NOT fair to the tax-payers and legal residents/citizens of the U.S./State of Washington!
Report ViolationDITTO, AAMODTDB.
This company is unbelievably stupid. For a contractor of a big-box store like Wally-World, I would think they had better sense. First, to not have brought this negative publicity to Wal-Mart, then to not have exposed themselves to an investigation by the Dept of Labor. How dumb can you get?
These illegal aliens need to be paid for the work they've done and reported to ICE as well. I say it again - THIS ENTIRE MESS COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED WITH A 30 SECOND WEB-CHECK USING E-VERIFY BEFORE THEY WERE HIRED. It would have also been kinder to the illegals as they wouldn't have been put in this position either. We are giving these people the wrong message - that they can work here. If they know they can't, they will go home on their own, or not even come in the first place.
Our selfish demand for cheap labor is enticing these people to come here any way they can, even if they break our laws, and that is simply wrong on both sides.
The ultimate fault lies with the EMPLOYER, and they should be prosecuted for hiring illegals - period.
They should be paid and deported, but the fact remains that they knowingly performed id fraud by using ssn's and other documents that were fake. What is an employer to do when they are lied to? There was a breach of the contract between employer/employee and it sure wasn't the employer who initiated the breach.
Report ViolationIt is interesting how these comments by citizens illustrate an understanding of this issue well beyond what our state politicians understand. Clearly our politics is determined by money/power. And immigration policy is driven by the peculiar combination of U.S. Chamber of Commerce interests pursuing an assumed ability for unlimited growth while seeking cheap labor, marching lockstep with socialist, union and ethnocentric groups (growing larger day to day because of importation of millions)seeking to gain more money/power.
And the workers noted in this story should be told that law-breakers should, for good reason, hesitate to be demanding "rights."
Why should they be paid and deported? They should be deported period. They broke the law entering illegal and thus every contract they entered into once here is illegal. If the company pays these workers now, they will have to break some laws.
Report ViolationThe illegal aliens should not be paid because they committed id fraud, and broke our immigration laws. They should be deported, and the contractor that hired them should be fined if they knowingly hired illegals.
Report ViolationOur Federal Government has failed to produce a sensible solution to illegal immigration.
Currently, they do not care about the American citizen, the illegal immigrant, or our local economy. All that they care about is getting their income tax, social security, and other deductions out of the paycheck. Whether it's from an illegal immigrant or an American citizen is moot.
Someone earlier this year wrote about the one thing that you all are overlooking.
He called on all of us to ask ourselves what we would do if we were placed in a similar situation as the undocumented workers. What would you do to feed your family? Would you go to another country without authorization to do so for better living conditions? Absolutely and possibly more! So look at the reality of the situation not just the legality. Your solutions are no solution at all.
We act like this mass migration is only happening to us, the US. This type of mass migration has happened throughout the world's history whenever there is famine, catastropy and political unrest.
The real issue is how the US is going to handle this. What kind of nation are we? Are we all uncaring individuals who only look to excuse ourselves through the legal issue?
Or are we the nation that was built on the backs of immigrants and a nation that will hold on to those ideals
today? That is the question that leads to a just solution.
The US Supreme Court ruled unanimously this week that the federal aggravated identity theft statute may not be used against undocumented workers who used false social security numbers for employment purposes without knowledge that the card belonged to another person.
See: Flores-Figueroa v. United States
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/08slipopinion.html
They should be paid. They did an honest days work and did it for those months. Why should we lower ourselves to cheat the immigrants out of pay? As for the comment about them being here taking our jobs? Once again..if our own welfare people weren't so dang lazy they would get out there in those orchards and do they work. But..no... the white people have a tendency to be picky about what kind of work they do even if they are on welfare. I have gone down to the welfare office and have seen "white" people standing down there all grungy, in pajamas,slippers,and poor hygiene. What the heck?! If the field jobs were being done by our own people then the immigrants would be less likely to come if the jobs were not available.However, the farmers/orchards owners can count of the immigrants because they are willing to work in any weather under any condition.
Report ViolationI am a supporter of e-Verify and wish it was the law of the land, but the issue here is a sleaseball operation like Standard Structures and to great extent Wal-Mart running these scams to exploit illegals, cheat them out of thier final wages, and then dump it on the community to clean up the mess.
I hope the light shining on this incident puts both operations under a microscope and hopefully in the crosshairs of a few prosecuters. Wal-Mart is caught in these things so often they can't be considered credible in their denials. "The I-9s all look good", e-Verify would have cleared that up in about 10 seconds.
Do they want us to beleive Standard Structures just stumbled into town from Arkansas. Can't help but wonder if they aren't part of the team that builds all Wal-Marts and that this practice is just part of the over-all package.
People tend to focus on the illegals and since thy don't care a hoot about them, it just goes on. BUT, ask yourself if you don't know an unemplyed local cement finisher and that is who really got screwed on this deal - by design. Thank you wal-Mart - destroying the country one job at a time.
Martha....
"...identity theft statute may not be used against undocumented workers who used false social security numbers for employment purposes without knowledge that the card belonged to another person....
This is insane...
key words..."Identity theft" and "false Soc Sec #'s....
Are we to believe that the illegals actually don't know that the card (I.D.) belongs to someone else? Give me a break! As soon as they didn't go to the Social Security office to file for a "PROPER" Soc Sec # tells me, and anyone else with an ounce of common sense that they "KNEW" what they were doing was ILLEGAL!...PERIOD!
Well, every single justice on the Supreme Court agreed that making up a Social Security number in order to get a job is not the same thing as, for example, going through someone's garbage looking for a Social Security number in order to steal that person's ID.
When you make up a phone number to give to some creep in a bar, are we supposed to believe that you didn't "KNOW" the phone number belongs to someone else??
ATTRITION THROUGH ENFORCEMENT!
TELL ME WHY STATES LIKE CALIFORNIA AND ARIZONA ARE SLIPPING TOWARDS BANKRUPTCY?
Enforce the 1986 Simpson/Mazzoli bill, the Immigration Reform & Control Act as enacted. Offer your support to Rep.Shuler (D-NC) on his gov website. Phone: 828-252-1651 and Senator Sessions (R-AL) (256) 533-0979
The majority in office are their adversaries that include Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Homeland Security Chief Napolitano and a cesspool of legislators have triumphed in reducing the influence of E-Verify, Real ID Act and police enforcement and detainment law (287(g) to arrest illegal aliens and criminals.
Senator Sessions and in addition Rep.Shuler, the author of E-Verify and the revised Save Act have a unceasing battle ahead. If we want to fight for what's left of our rights under the Constitution, join NUMBERSUSA JUDICIALWATCH to stop 2nd AMNESTY? STOP FUNDING TO SANCTUARY STATES! NO MORE RAISED TAXES TO PAY ILLEGAL ALIENS & FAMILIES! IMMIGRATION LAWS ARE NOT BROKEN---JUST NOT ENFORCED!
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