Thread: Pro's Ranch Markets fires 300 after workplace audit

Pro's Ranch Markets fires 300 after workplace audit

by Max Jarman -
Apr. 21, 2010 06:54 PM
The Arizona Republic .

About 300 employees at Pro's Ranch Markets' six metro Phoenix supermarkets were let go Tuesday and Wednesday after an initial Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency audit found them to be working illegally in the United States.

The fired employees can appeal the decision, but they are prohibited from working during the process.

Julie Pace, an attorney for Pro's Ranch Markets, said most of the affected workers gave the company forged documents when asked to demonstrate their eligibility to work in the United States.

Only citizens and non-citizens with work authorization documentation are permitted to hold jobs in the United States.

"We complied with all the requirements, but they were still able to slip through," she said.

Pro's Ranch Markets has about 1,500 employees in the Phoenix area.

The company eventually could be fined as a result of the action.

Pace said Pro's Ranch Market gave terminated employees packets containing an immigration resource list, parting message from the company's president and a $250 grocery gift card.

Pro's Ranch Market is among 1,654 U.S. businesses, including 84 in Arizona, that have undergone audits of their employee eligibility forms, called I-9 forms, since July 2009.

All employees (citizen and non-citizen) hired after Nov. 6, 1986, must fill out the forms that document their eligibility to work in the United States. Employers are required to maintain the forms and, on request, turn them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for inspection.

Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, would not say how many of the 84 companies audited in Arizona were found to have illegal workers. Some of the audits are ongoing, she said.

Nationwide, an initial inspection of 85,000 I-9 forms from 654 companies, found about 14,000 suspect documents.

The agency fined 61 of the companies a total of $2.3 million.

Pro's Ranch Markets is based in Ontario, Calif. and maintains a regional headquarters in Phoenix. It operates 12 Latin-themed supermarkets in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.


Reach the reporter at max.jarman@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-7351.

http://www.azcentral.com/business/artic ... rkers.html

That's 300 Americans denied jobs in this horrible job market. How many more Americans now are victims of identity theft too? I forget even though identity theft is a class 4 felony, it doesn't apply to illegal aliens. Gutierrez defended identity theft during a House committee hearing involving an American family (the Costners) who lost jobs and have a ruined credit rating because one of Gutierrez' chosen people used a stolen social security number to obtain a job and bilk taxpayers when he applied for benefits. Gutierrez is a corrupt, treasonous traitorous horse's ass who doesn't give a damn about Americans losing jobs to illegal aliens and who are killed, raped, murdered and victimized from other crimes committed by those who have no legal right to be in this country but would be rewarded for their crimes with amnesty, instant citizenship and a place at the taxpayer trough....

The fired employees can appeal the decision, but they are prohibited from working during the process.

Yeah, right! Those folks have no intentions of appealing anything - they're off looking for their next illegally obtained job. ICE should have rounded them all up for deportation.

Let us hope Guiterrez is one to be voted out this November. I noticed on the Comedy Channel tonight they seem to be making fun of the illegal problem and the new Arizona Law.

I have been to one of the large Ranch Markets in Phoenix. Very few people spoke English and the place was packed.

I wish my company would do audits like this. So many of my co-workers are illegal. Most of the jobs illegals take are jobs generally held by American youth. Now its hard for people like my self to find jobs.

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-5163--0-0.html

Every illegal you see working is stealing jobs from an American.

Prosecute to the fullest extent. There's no way they didn't know they had illegal employees...

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Send this story to every bleeding heart you know...