U.S. Arrests Hundreds of Workers at Wal-Mart
Stores
Thu Oct 23, 8:47 PM ET
story.news.yahoo.com
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hundreds of workers at Wal-Mart
Stores Inc. locations across the country were arrested on immigration
charges in an investigation into contractor cleaning crews, and some
company executives knew about the alleged illegal hirings, U.S. officials
said on Thursday.
They said the investigation, known as
"Operation Rollback," involved allegations the
contractor had recruited illegal immigrants,
mainly Eastern European nationals, to work
on cleaning crews at stores of Wal-Mart, the
world's largest retailer.
Two officials initially said about 300 workers
had been arrested at 61 stores in 21 states.
But the officials later revised the numbers and
said about 250 had been arrested at some 60
stores. They said investigators were still pursuing at least 50 workers.
Federal law enforcement officials said some Wal-Mart executives had
direct knowledge of the alleged scheme, based on recorded
conversations, surveillance and monitoring.
One official said federal agents conducted searches at the Bentonville,
Arkansas, headquarters of Wal-Mart, the largest U.S. private sector
employer, with about 1.1 million workers in the United States and 1.4
million worldwide.
Another official said federal grand jury subpoenas have been issued for
the Wal-Mart executives to testify. The executives were not identified.
An official said the U.S. investigators believe Wal-Mart has shown a
"reckless disregard" for U.S. immigration laws, exploiting workers, and
has continued to hire some contractors who were already convicted of
felony violations.
A Wal-Mart spokesman said the company was "committed to
cooperating" with federal officials, who he said came to company
headquarters with specific requests for information.
"These are third-party contractors," spokesman Tom Williams said. "We
require that the contractors use legal workers."
"We don't know at this point if the current investigation includes one or
more outside contractors. We use hundreds of them," he said, adding
that about 1,000 of Wal-Mart's U.S. stores have outside cleaning
services.
Wal-Mart already faces dozens of lawsuits alleging discrimination and
violations of wage-and-hour rules. The company has drawn fire from labor
groups, who say the company has an anti-union stance.
WORKSITE ENFORCEMENT EFFORT
Garrison Courtney, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland
Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the
arrests were part of a "worksite enforcement" effort.
"If a company knowingly hires illegal workers it can be penalized up to
$10,000 per person," he said.
The latest arrests stemmed from two prior investigations by federal
immigration officials involving contractors and Wal-Mart stores, one in
1998 and the other in 2001, the officials said.
One official said the cleaning contractor at issue in the latest
investigation was owned by two Illinois men and a Missouri man.
The company, which was not identified, allegedly hired illegal aliens, who
had been recruited in the United States and in Europe, the official said.
Kurt Barnard, head of the consulting firm Retail
Forecasting Group, said, "This is going to be a major
public relations problem, with lots of tongues wagging
about it."
Still, he said the news would probably have little effect
on Wal-Mart's sales or profits because the company's
low prices will continue to attract shoppers by the
millions. Wal-Mart estimates more than 100 million
Americans visit their stores every week.
On Wall Street, the stock closed up 47 cents at $58.71
on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites).
In March, a federal court jury acquitted leading poultry
processor Tyson Foods and three of its executives of
conspiring to smuggle illegal immigrants to work at its
U.S. plants. (Additional reporting by Deborah Charles
and Emily Kaiser) |
