KERA: Pilgrim's Pride Settles With Immigration (2009-12-30)

KERA: Pilgrim's Pride Settles With Immigration (2009-12-30)

DALLAS, TX (KERA) - A settlement has been reached between U.S. Immigration officials and Pilgrim's Pride, the East Texas poultry processor. KERA's BJ Austin reports. Pilgrim's Pride will pay four-and-a-half million dollars, and adopt more stringent hiring practices to ensure its workforce is composed of employees legally entitled to work in the U.S. In return, the U.S. Attorney's office agrees to stop its immigration-related investigations of current and former Pilgrim's Pride employees.

RAD ~ Is your company prepared to pay millions of dollars in fines for not having stringent enough hiring practices? Do you know what practices are required and yet will not make your company liable to a discrimination lawsuit?

Owner, managers and restaurant corporations sentenced for hiring illegal aliens in Mississippi

 

Owner, managers and restaurant corporations sentenced for hiring illegal aliens in Mississippi

Jackson, Miss. - Two corporations and their owner, along with two former managers of Stix Restaurant in Flowood, Mississippi, were sentenced for violating federal criminal immigration laws related to hiring, continuing to employ and harboring illegal aliens following a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigation.

U.S. District Court Judge William H. Barbour sentenced Gin Hsing Chen, aka David Chen, former owner of Stix Restaurant in Flowood, Mississippi, to 12 months in prison and one year of supervised release. Chen was also fined $72,000 and was required to forfeit $100,000 in lieu of a home he owned in Flowood that was used to house some of the illegal alien employees of Stix Restaurant.

Chen's sister, Shao Li Chen, aka Judy Chen and Judy Wong, a former manager of the local eatery, was sentenced to eight months in prison and two years of supervised release and fined $5,000 for harboring illegal aliens for the purpose of commercial advantage and private financial gain.

RAD~ For those who complain that ICE isn’t serious about enforcement – they are. Thanks to Bender’s for posting the link.

Poultry firm fined $1.5 million after immigration raid, monitoring -- baltimoresun.com

Poultry firm fined $1.5 million after immigration raid, monitoring -- baltimoresun.com

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Following a massive raid at the Greenville plant last year, Columbia Farms was charged with intentionally hiring illegal immigrants. A McClatchy Newspapers investigation of workplace safety in the poultry industry spurred the federal probe.

Under the agreement, the government will dismiss charges against the company if it improves its hiring practices over the next two years and submits to federal monitoring at its eight plants in the Carolinas and Louisiana.

"Our goal is not to punish corporations and force them to cut jobs, especially in these economic times," Walt Wilkins, U.S. Attorney for South Carolina, told McClatchy Newspapers. "Our goal is to make them a responsible corporate citizen. And this agreement accomplishes all of that."

The settlement stipulates that "Columbia Farms accepts responsibility for its actions associated with the employment of unauthorized workers."

House of Raeford has already begun revamping its hiring practices, Wilkins said. Over the past year, a newly hired corporate compliance officer has audited hiring procedures to ensure they conform to federal laws. "I am confident that we are seeing a true change in these companies' approach to hiring," Wilkins said.
 
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