ICE is right to go after employers on illegal workers

By Dennis Wyatt
Managing Editor

POSTED April 23, 2011 1:50 a.m.

There is a line in the illegal immigration debate that goes something like this: Illegal workers pay tons of taxes that help subsidize the rest of us because they can’t benefit from them such as Social Security tax.

This is pitched out to convince those who believe illegal workers are a massive tax burden especially in this day and age of shrinking revenue and government budget cuts.

So it may come as a surprise to some about the case of Chuy’s Mesquite Broiler Restaurants in Southern California and Arizona.

This past week federal agents raided 15 of the chain’s restaurant locations, detained 40 suspected illegal immigrants, arrested the owners, and also arrested the firm’s outside bookkeeper.

The federal indictment that triggered the raids charges that the firm kept two separate payrolls - one for legal workers and the other for illegals. The illegals were paid under the table without any deduction of employment or income taxes. The illegals worked in the kitchens while the legal workers were the servers.

John Morton, chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was quoted as saying, “This is a very significant case with national ramifications.â€