Thread: SM Temp Agency Enters Illegal Immigration Battle

http://www.smdp.com/article/articles/24 ... ion-battle

SM temp agency enters illegal immigration battle
By Kevin Herrera
Daily Press Staff Writer

MID CITY — In what may be the first in a series of lawsuits to curb illegal immigration, a Santa Monica-based temp agency specializing in the hiring of foreign laborers is suing a Central Valley blueberry grower and two competing companies for allegedly using undocumented workers.

Filed under the state’s unfair-competition law, the suit claims companies that hire illegal immigrants make it almost impossible for others to compete unless they too break the law. Undocumented workers typically are paid lower wages than those who are here legally, and they don’t demand pensions, health insurance or workers’ compensation.

Similar cases claiming violations of federal anti-racketeering laws have seen mixed results. The current suit is believed to be the first based on a state’s unfair-competition laws, legal experts said.

National anti-immigration groups are helping finance the legal actions, believing businesses in other states with similar laws will use the tactic and spark a national wave of litigation that could become a major deterrent to hiring illegal immigrants.

In a complaint filed Monday in Kern County Superior Court, Global Horizons Inc., located near the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and 14th Street, claims Munger Bros. opted out of a contract with the temp agency to hire 600 blueberry pickers and instead hired illegal immigrants from Ayala Agricultural Services and J & A Contractors.

Mordechai Orian, president of Horizons, said the suit is just as much an attempt to recoup losses incurred because of the contract dispute as it is a rebuke of the federal government’s failure to devise an equitable immigration policy.

“We think the government should enforce its own laws against employers who hire illegal immigrants … this lawsuit is calling attention to the inequities in the current system,” Orian said. “Global is not anti-immigrant. It works with the immigrant community on a daily basis to provide workers to growers and farmers. It cares about the well-being of the workers and has formed an alliance with the United Farm Workers union to make sure that the rights of workers are protected. Both organizations see the guest worker program as a viable alternative to meeting the needs of growers and farmers, but we can’t be undercut.”

With an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, undocumented workers are a large part of the nation’s work force.

Immigration law enforcement at work sites, however, is limited. In fiscal year 1999, there were 2,849 work site arrests compared to 1,145 last year, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

David Klehm, a Santa Ana attorney who file the suit, said he is readying similar claims on behalf of roofers, farmers, metal shop owners and other small-business owners.

Theodore Hoppe, a Fresno lawyer representing Munger Bros., denied that his client hired undocumented workers. While he hasn’t seen the lawsuit yet, Hoppe said Global Horizons is using the contentious issue of illegal immigration to force his client into settling, when in fact it should be Horizons that pays damages for failing to fulfill its end of the bargain.

“(Global Horizons workers) represented themselves as experienced berry pickers and said they could perform at a rate that was much higher than workers Munger Bros. hired in the past,” Hoppe said. “Two weeks into it, they weren’t performing at a level needed nor at the level discussed in the contract.”

That led Munger Bros. to go with other contractors it had worked with before. Hoppe said Munger Bros. has a strict policy against hiring illegal immigrants and that’s why it contracts out with professional temp agencies, which are responsible for screening all applicants for proper documentation.

“They will try to have this lawsuit decided in the press, using illegal immigration to grab headlines, and they’re doing a pretty good job,” Hoppe said just before he was to do an interview with CNN. “What this really boils down to is a simple contract dispute between two businesses.”

To be successful in court, Horizons must prove that Munger Bros., Ayala and J & A directly harmed its business.

To prove competitors hire illegal immigrants, businesses could use public records involving prior violations, testimony from former employees who have worked alongside illegal immigrants, and recovered W-2 tax forms that show people working under fake names and Social Security numbers, said Klehm.

The Horizons lawsuit comes following a settlement in a Washington state class-action suit in which employees of Zirkle Fruit Co. sued their employer for driving down wages by hiring undocumented workers.

Based on federal anti-racketeering laws, the suit was settled for $1.3 million in January after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court decision to dismiss it.

National anti-immigration groups are helping finance the legal actions, believing businesses in other states with similar laws will use the tactic and spark a national wave of litigation that could become a major deterrent to hiring illegal immigrants.

If the issue of the lawsuit is undocumented workers, that being illegal immigrants, how then does the writer of this article (a supposedly educated journalist) make the leap to claim this is "anti-immigrant"? Are the people (journalists and politicians) who consistently fail to recognize the difference between legal and illegal immigration just plain stupid, or is this done on purpose?

“We think the government should enforce its own laws against employers who hire illegal immigrants … this lawsuit is calling attention to the inequities in the current system,” Orian said. “Global is not anti-immigrant. It works with the immigrant community on a daily basis to provide workers to growers and farmers.

That pretty well sums up what the object of the lawsuit is. Why can't the writer of the article figure that out?

This nation is just bursting with lawsuits re illegal immigration isn't it? Hmmmm....