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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Mi Pueblo markets came under U.S. immigration audit, company says

    Mi Pueblo markets came under U.S. immigration audit, company says

    By Matt O'Brien
    San Jose Mercury News
    mercurynews.comPosted: 10/05/2012 12:55:59 PM PDT

    October 5, 2012 10:20 PM GMTUpdated: 10/05/2012 03:20:00 PM PDT

    Federal immigration agents launched an audit of the 21-store Mi Pueblo supermarket chain in mid-August after hearing complaints about suspected illegal immigrant workers, the company announced Friday.

    The audit of I-9 forms, known as a "silent raid," was the reason the San Jose-based grocer voluntarily joined the federal E-Verify system a short time later to check the immigration status of all new hires.

    U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has audited more than 6,500 worksites nationwide since 2009, but "most companies choose not to talk about it because it is confidential," said company lawyer Julie Case. She led a press conference Friday to dispel rumors she said were spreading fear and division.

    The announcement comes days before a threatened boycott is to begin at noon Monday, led by a union trying to organize Mi Pueblo's more than 3,000 workers and demanding that the company stop using E-Verify.

    The union said Friday it is backing off on the E-Verify demand amid news of the ICE audit, but is proceeding with the boycott because Mi Pueblo refuses to sign a labor agreement. Supermarket workers are even more upset about how this was handled than they were before, said Gerardo Dominguez, campaign coordinator for the Justice for Mercado Workers Coalition. It is seeking to unionize thousands of Latino and Asian grocery workers around the state.

    "People are very anxious, very nervous, very upset," said Dominguez.

    He said one worker recently quit because he was feeling too much stress.

    In a video shown to employees earlier this week, Mi Pueblo founder and CEO Juvenal Chavez revealed the audit for the first time and said he would have to dismiss any workers found to have invalid work documents.

    "The possibility of losing one of our employees will hurt my heart," he said, according to a transcript of the video obtained by the union and translated into English from Spanish. "And it will feel like losing a family member."

    Labor activists have faulted Chavez, a U.S. citizen who is himself a former illegal immigrant from Mexico, for betraying the Latino immigrant community that sustains his business, but the company has fought back the attacks on its reputation and hired an Arizona legal team and immigrant rights activist Lydia Guzman to help manage the crisis.

    Case, the lawyer, spoke to reporters Friday in front of posters depicting what she called "immigration reform butterflies" that emphasize the need for the "left wing" and the "right wing" to come together.

    "Companies get caught in the middle" of immigration enforcement stings and the audits have particularly hurt Hispanic businesses, she said. It could take months or more than a year for the government to complete its audit, she said.

    The government can fine companies for hiring illegal workers, but Case said it is not a crime for the company to hire workers who used counterfeit forms that looked genuine.

    "We can't discriminate" or scrutinize workers just "because they have brown skin or speak Spanish or have a Spanish surname," she said.

    Chavez, a former janitor, founded his first Mi Pueblo in 1991 and built a chain across the Bay Area and into the Central Valley. City leaders have lauded Mi Pueblo for revitalizing shopping centers with its festive supermarkets and bakeries.

    The chain's original East San Jose store at King and Story roads was bustling Friday morning. Most shoppers said they were unaware of the immigration problems or the boycott plan.

    As he pushed a cart out of the store, shopper Carlos Carranza, 19, said he had not heard of the boycott but he faulted the government for any hardships the audit brings to workers.

    "The company has nothing to with it," the San Jose resident said.

    "They're just doing their job."

    Mi Pueblo markets came under U.S. immigration audit, company says - San Jose Mercury News
    NO AMNESTY

    Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.


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  2. #2
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Group to call for boycott of Calif. grocery chain

    The Associated PressAssociated Press
    Posted: 10/08/2012 11:19:14 AM PDT
    October 8, 2012 7:35 PM GMTUpdated: 10/08/2012 12:35:47 PM PDT

    SAN JOSE, Calif.—A Northern California-based grocery store chain that caters to Latino immigrants has come under fire for participating in a federal program that checks the immigration status of prospective workers.

    Community groups are set to call for a boycott of San Jose-based Mi Pueblo on Monday that stems at least in part from the chain's participation in the E-Verify program. The program is voluntary in California.

    The company said on Friday that it joined E-Verify after federal immigration officials launched an audit of its existing workers' immigration status in August, the San Jose Mercury News reported ( Mi Pueblo markets came under U.S. immigration audit, company says - San Jose Mercury News).

    The chain's founder, Juvenal Chavez, himself a former illegal immigrant, has briefed employees over the past week, the Los Angeles Times reported (Grocery chain that caters to Latinos is target of ICE audit - Wire Lifestyle - The Sacramento Bee) over the weekend. The company is also launching a radio show to educate families who could be affected by the audit and plans to conduct outreach to community organizations and churches.

    Mi Pueblo spokeswoman Perla Rodriguez told the Times that Chavez has vowed to rehire any worker fired for being in the country illegally but who later gains legal status. He will also continue to push for comprehensive immigration reform.

    Mi Pueblo was founded in 1991. It now has 21 stores in the San Francisco Bay area, the Central Valley and the Monterey Bay region.
    The groups expected to call for the boycott on Monday, who call themselves the Justice for Mercados Campaign, are led by a union trying to organize Mi Pueblo's more than 3,000 workers, according to the Mercury News.


    In a statement, the campaign said it is trying to determine if in fact Mi Pueblo is being audited. It says Mi Pueblo could stop any audit by informing federal officials that the company is in the midst of a labor dispute reflected by the ongoing organizing effort by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5.

    In a statement, the group said the boycott will continue "until such time as Mi Pueblo respects the rights of its workers and the members of the communities in which it operates and until it rescinds E-Verify and sticks up for its employees instead of cooperating with an I-9 audit that can be stopped."
    ——— Information from: San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News, http://www.mercurynews.com

    Group to call for boycott of Calif. grocery chain - San Jose Mercury News
    NO AMNESTY

    Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.


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  3. #3
    Administrator Jean's Avatar
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    Seems some employers can't win, damned if they do, damned if they don't.
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