Thread: How do You Say RICO in Spanish?

Could be good news:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/3819791.html
High court adding its voice to fight over immigration The issue: Can workers sue their company under RICO for using illegal employees?

By PATTY REINERTCopyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -
Lawmakers are trying to rewrite immigration laws. The White House is pushing a guest worker plan. Immigrants are demonstrating in the streets and federal officials are staging the largest workplace raids in history to round up the undocumented.

Now the U.S. Supreme Court will weigh in on immigration.

The justices will hear arguments today in a Georgia case that will determine whether employees can use the 1970 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law to sue companies that hire illegal immigrants to drive down wages for legal workers.

The RICO law was created as a tool to go after mobsters and drug kingpins, but its use has been expanded to others.

The case brought by employees of carpet maker Mohawk Industries Inc. alleges the company conspired with labor recruiters in Brownsville, Texas, to hire recently arrived illegal immigrants and send them to Georgia. If the employees win at the high court, they will be able to sue Mohawk under RICO in federal court, where they could collect triple damages.

The company claims it cannot be sued under RICO because it does not qualify as a separate "enterprise" under the language of the law.

Could be significant"If the Supreme Court sides with the (workers) in this case, there is no doubt that we will see many more civil RICO cases filed on a broad range of subject matters, not just immigration," said Karen Hirschman, a partner at the Vinson & Elkins law firm's Dallas office who specializes in complex civil litigation.

The last major immigration reform law, passed in 1986, was supposed to crack down on employers that hire undocumented workers, but the law was never strictly enforced. In 1996, RICO was expanded to cover companies that knowingly hire illegal workers by using their own employees or outside contractors to recruit them.

Using RICO, employees have sued employers they accuse of looking the other way when presented with fake work documents and, in some cases, traveling to the border to recruit undocumented immigrants.

Four legal workers — Shirley Williams, Gale Pelfrey, Bonnie Jones and Lora Sisson — sued Mohawk in 2004. They are seeking a retroactive wage increase for all legal workers at the company from January 1999 to the present.

The workers claim Mohawk paid employees and outside recruiters to find illegal workers along the Texas-Mexico border. The lawsuit also alleges Mohawk hid the workers from immigration authorities and rehired some under fake names after they had been caught with false documents.
White House supportChicago lawyer Howard Foster, an immigration control activist, plans to argue on behalf of the plaintiffs that the alleged behavior is what Congress had in mind when it added immigration violations to the list of crimes that fall under RICO.

The Bush administration is siding with the workers and will share argument time with Foster.

Mohawk denies any wrongdoing and says it provides competitive pay and benefits to its employees. The company argued in two lower courts that it cannot be sued under RICO because it and its recruiters do not qualify as a separate "enterprise" under the law.

Mohawk lost attempts in lower courts to avoid the lawsuit. Its last chance is a Supreme Court decision in its favor.

Company attorney Carter Phillips of Washington contends that if the justices agree with the lower courts, they will make companies vulnerable to all kinds of costly RICO lawsuits for relatively minor business disputes.

I kept wondering when the Supreme Court would get in here. I hope it is something that will help.

Originally Posted by crazybird

I kept wondering when the Supreme Court would get in here. I hope it is something that will help.

Yeah but some of the justices were appointed by Bush, and Bush wants Amnesty. Do you thing the judges will be sympathic towards the companies who hire illegals?

Originally Posted by ConcernedCitizen

Originally Posted by crazybird

I kept wondering when the Supreme Court would get in here. I hope it is something that will help.

Yeah but some of the justices were appointed by Bush, and Bush wants Amnesty. Do you thing the judges will be sympathic towards the companies who hire illegals?

I read the damn article twice and it states that the Bush admin is siding with the workers---which wokers---American or Mexican?

I hated that bush was able to appoint some of the justices.... Eh I really do hope these justices do some justice for the american working class, for the citizens of this nation.

After they're appointed they have no further need of Bush...they can assert themselves with inpugnity.

MJ

The company claims it cannot be sued under RICO because it does not qualify as a separate "enterprise" under the language of the law.

I hope the Supreme Court doesn't screw this up .... I've posted this before but I will post it again, because it bears repeating

The "Enterprise"

The term "enterprise," includes any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or other legal entity, and any union or group of individuals associated in fact, even though such association is not recognized as a legal entity.
The enterprise must exhibit three basic characteristics: (1) a common or shared purpose; (2) some continuity of structure and personnel; and (3) an ascertainable structure distinct from that necessary to conduct a pattern of racketeering activity.
A group or association of people can be an enterprise if the individuals have joined together for the purpose of engaging in a common course of conduct. Such an association of persons may be established by evidence showing an ongoing organization, formal or informal, and by evidence that the people making up the association functioned as a continuing unit.
Such an association of individuals may retain its status as an "enterprise" even though the membership of the association changes during the course of its existence. And a RICO enterprise need not be a single juridical entity; it can also be an "association-in-fact."

The FBI defines significant racketeering activities as those predicate criminal acts which are chargeable under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Statute. Under the conspiracy theory and RICO Act,

I don't know how their attorney reads it, but to me they qualify as a 'criminal enterprise' engaging in a conspiracy to commit criminal acts

I hope this works also - how long will it take for them to hand down a verdict on this????

Also, if they give amnesty to the illegals - will it be amnesty for the employers as well?

Originally Posted by nntrixie

I hope this works also - how long will it take for them to hand down a verdict on this????

Also, if they give amnesty to the illegals - will it be amnesty for the employers as well?

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have no faith in the federal courts. They couldn't even get the eminent domain case right and the Constitution was unambiguous about that

RICO civil cases are certainly an option. For the fun of it I've put together a list of IFCO pallet manufacturers / recycler competitors per the recent raids on IFCO. [hmmm...I wonder if they use illegals too?]

If the IFCO criminal allegations are proven true in federal court, if I were a competitor (not hiring illegals), I'd take a look at seeking damages.