Please let me know if this is a duplicate - I didn't find it when I did a search.

http://houston.bizjournals.com/houston/ ... ily20.html
Illegal immigrants sue Café Express
Houston Business Journal - September 20, 2006
by Jaime S. Jordan
Dallas Business Journal
Illegal immigrants who worked at Café Express in Houston and two other cities in Texas have sued the chain and Houston law firm Boyar & Miller P.C. for negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud and other allegations related to the filing of employment certification paperwork.

According to the lawsuit, filed in Dallas Country District Court, Boyar & Miller and Café Express, a unit of Wendy's International Inc., missed a 2001 deadline to file paperwork that could have allowed the illegal immigrants to become U.S. citizens. Wendy's was also named in the suit.


The nearly 100 undocumented employees involved in the action were allegedly fired because they lacked permanent resident status, according to the suit filed Friday when the employees were dismissed. The suit involves illegal immigrants who worked at Café Express locations in the Dallas, Houston and Austin metropolitan areas, said Stan Broome of Howie, Broome & Bobo LLP, the law firm representing the workers.

A spokesman for Wendy's did not immediately return a call for comment. A spokesman for Boyar & Miller was not immediately available for comment.

According to the lawsuit, Café Express established a sponsorship program with the Immigration and Naturalization Service Office in which the restaurant and the law firm would complete and file citizenship applications for the employees. In return the company would deduct $25 from the employee's weekly paychecks to cover legal expenses.

Café Express sent a letter to lead plaintiff Jamie Chavez, who worked at a Dallas-area location, and the other immigrants in July, saying their applications could not be successfully completed, the lawsuit stated. They also were told that unless they could prove their applications had been submitted on their own by April 30, 2001, they would be fired on Sept. 15, according to court documents.

The lawsuit claims the workers did not know until they received the letters this year that their applications were not submitted in 2001. However, the $25 a week continued to be deducted from their checks for several years following the deadline, according to court documents.

The illegal immigrants are seeking damages for the money that was taken out of their checks, as well as lifetime wages and legal fees. The lawsuit also calls for special damages because the workers will not qualify as permanent U.S. residents, preventing them from becoming U.S. citizens.