Authorities raid Sizzler restaurants in Phoenix

[The Northerner]

Source: Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) - Sheriff's deputies raided two Sizzler steak house restaurants in Phoenix on Saturday, arresting nine employees who are suspected of being illegal immigrants and using fraudulent documents to get jobs.

The raids were part of a yearlong investigation into whether the operators of the two Sizzler locations broke a civil law by knowingly hiring illegal immigrants, Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Lt. Brian Lee said in a statement.

Deputies were looking for 23 suspects wanted for identity theft, Lee said. Authorities believe one of the suspects was deported three times and has been hired back by Sizzler each time he returned.

The sheriff's office received a tip from a former Sizzler manager who claimed he had been fired for his refusal to hire employees without the proper documents, Lee said.

"This is another example of a case where desperately needed jobs are being occupied by illegal aliens who have disregarded our laws and our borders," Sheriff Joe Arpaio said in the statement.

Read more: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100613/D9GA4CAO0.html

[Bluebear]

1. 'The sheriff's office received a tip from a former Sizzler manager' - What is witch hunt en espagnol

[Bobbieo]

11. witch hunt in Spanish - caza de brujas!!!

[Brickbat]

2. Looking forward to when they raid the HR offices at Sizzler's to arrest people who hired the

allegedly illegal immigrants....crickets...

[awoke_in_2003]

12. +1000

we NEVER seem to punish the right people.

[Richard Steele]

14. Yeah, let's all hold our breath until that happens, shall we?

Some poor "Jose Smith" who grew up in such a world of SHIT
that 'walking 500 miles on foot to a below-minimum-wage job
in a foreign country where he's depised on sight'
seems like hitting the lottery...yeah, let's lock him up.

The shit-sucking corporate weasels who add a few percent
to their 7-figure bonuses by establishing an illegal POLICY
of hiring desperate fellows like 'Jose Smith'...
Sure, they're blatantly guilty of numerous racketeering charges,
but that means less in this society than the fact that
they were seated next to the Governor at his last fundraiser.

Feudalism is the new Democracy. Get used to to it folks, because
it isn't going away any time soon.

[hedgehog]

3. Hmmm..how long before we hear about the businesspeople

facing a shakedown from the cops to ensure their places aren't raided?


"Yearlong investigation"?

Not only questioning why it took a year, but also why they were investigating 10 months before the law was passed!

[Xipe Totec]

4. I swear, the IQ of AZ just keeps dropping

with every immigrant that leaves the state.

[Ian David]

5. Sizzler donates to Democrats. Tyson Foods and Wal-Mart to Republicans.

Guess who gets raided, and who does NOT get raided?

Guess which two companies hire more undocumented workers than anyone else, IIRC?

[jaxx]

6. Did they arrest the employers?

And Sheriff Arpaio thinks they illegals just walked in there and took the jobs all by themselves. Jeez these racist bastards make me sick.

[BR_Parkway]

7. Why is it a civil law to hire them? Why not criminal? Throw a few

bosses in jail who break the rules and you wouldn't have this problem to deal with - as it stands, it's cheaper for the companies to pay the 'civil' fine and exploit the workers

[Moosepoop]

8. It becomes criminal when they show a "pervasive pattern" of it.

http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/penalties-for-employers-hiring-illegal-immigrants.html

Under federal law, it is illegal for any employer to hire, recruit or refer for a fee any alien not authorized to work in the United States. There are criminal and civil penalties associated with this conduct.

For first offenders, there is a $250-$2,000 fine per illegal employee.

For a second offense, the fine is $2,000-$5,000 per illegal employee.

For employers who have been convicted of hiring illegal immigrants more than twice, the fine can range from $3000-$10,000 per employee. If the employer demonstrates a pervasive pattern of knowingly employing illegal immigrants, he or she could face additional fines, and up to six months in jail.

[primavera]

17. The tricky bit is the "knowingly employing" part

ICE has to prove not only that the employer hired an undocumented worker, but that they knew that the worker was undocumented. If an American company wants to hire undocumented labor, they accept a cocktail napkin scribbled with crayon as valid evidence of employment authorization and, if anyone ever questions them about it, they shrub their shoulders and ask: "Well how was I to know that that cocktail napkin wasn't legitimate proof of employment authorization?" In one of the most notorious cases, that of Tyson's Chicken, the company actually paid smugglers to bring undocumented workers into the country to work at their meat packing facilities. When the then INS cracked down on them, the corporation's executives pretended that it was all just the misdeeds of a few bad apple, low-level managers (whom they hastily threw to the wolves) and the INS could never prove conclusively that the policy was endorsed by the corporate board of directors, despite the pervasiveness of the practice. Also keep in mind that, in order to get enough legislators to support the imposition of employer sanctions to get it passed in the first place, lawmakers had to write in exemptions for certain key sectors of the economy which, coincidentally, happened to be the sectors which employed most of the undocumented laborers. Welcome to the US, land of corruption.

[SoapBox]

9. Hope they film the line up of good, legal, WHITE Americans...

...filling out forms for all those good, high paying, high benefits jobs!

""This is another example of a case where DESPERATELY needed jobs are being occupied by illegal aliens who have disregarded our laws and our borders," Sheriff Joe Arpaio said in the statement."

Yup! and Yes sir! We'll just be watching to see the long line of Americans
waiting to take all those jobs!

...not.

[Rage for Order]

19. This good, legal, WHITE American...

Has done every job in a restaurant environment - line cook, dishwasher, waiter, and busboy. They weren't the greatest jobs in the world, but they paid a lot more than zero. And you know what? If I needed a job, I would work any of those jobs again.

Try a different meme, 'cause the one you got ain't cutting it.

[customerserviceguy]

10. Simple solution

Require an e-Verify form for each employee for whom wages are deducted on an employer's business tax return form. No verification, no deduction.

[boppers]

15. Simple evasion

Multiple people working under the same, legally valid, identity.

[customerserviceguy]

16. e-Verify keeps track of that situation

The IRS already knows which SSN's are run through a photocopier.

If an employer knows that they will not be able to deduct thousands of dollars of wages paid to an illegal immigrant, they will make damn good and sure that the ID they are presented with didn't come out of the back of someone's car trunk.

The beauty of this is that states that assess an income tax can enact it without dealing with Federal immigration issues, and nobody seems to have minded, "Papers, please" for the last quarter century when it comes to getting a job. Since it's required of every new hire, it doesn't have the problems of racial profiling.

[jmowreader]

13. Sizzler is still in business?

[Jennicut]

18. They filed for bankruptcy in the 90's but rebounded. It is owned by an Aussie company now.

The question is, is the Ponderosa still around?

[HopeHoops]

20. Yeah, so Sherriff Asshole went after the employees instead of the fucking COMPANY!

Who is committing the bigger crime here?