Wal-Mart - Ilegal Immigrants - What's Up With That?

[Justice]

Has anyone else wondered about this? What is the real story here? Why did the feds go after Wal-Mart - a hard core supporter of all things Bush,conservative and unfriendly. If you told me that unions exposed the practice, I would believe it - but am surprised they could get the feds to investigate. This was very public - I thought the Bush administration took care of its own.

I heard a wall street analyst on the radio (CNN news network) yesterday express real shock about this. He said that wall street has loved WM because it micromanages everything - and implied this will really affect the way WM will be perceived (ie stock value). He dismissed the fact that the folks worked for a cleaning contractor rather than WM directly (WM's excuse) - he went back to WM is supposed to have such strong systems in place to monitor this sort of thing.

If you haven't heard about it here is the story :
More than 300 illegal immigrants seized in raids on Wal-Mart stores
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/7093054.htm

[Superfly]

1. What I don't get

is people here on DU sing praises when ex-gov Davis attempted to issue ID cards and driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, saying that they can finally work, etc....

On the other hand, screaming up and down what an outrage it is that Walmart is putting some of these people to work.

I just don't get it. I guess some people think that, just because it has to do with Walmart, it must be wrong. However, a politician does it, and it's wonderful social reform.

B

[libertad]

10. I think it may be more of a "profiling" issue in this case. When I

heard that most of the illegals were from Europe, I wondered if it was part of the "war on terror" because a lot of illegals from Europe are Bosnian Muslims. It may be that the govt is profiling and tracking Muslims.

[La_Serpiente]

2. The thing about it

is that they didn't work for Wal Mart. WM did outsourcing to other private companies to do their work. WM has a policy stating that illegal aliens shall not work for them nor any other company doing business also.

These were cleaning people, etc., that were working at the store. WM turned them in to the AG office.

[Spazito]

11. Actually, Walmart knew this was occurring, their head office was raided...

and documents taken out. This covered many states. Walmart stinks in this, but, then again, they stink in everything they do, imo.

[Drifter]

3. When I go into a store ...

now, I ask a simple question.

Who is paying for the product ?

Is it me (the consumer) ?
Or is it the employee ?

The cheapest price is not always the best price.

Cheers
Drifter

BTW, I hope they put these Wal-Mart executives in jail.

[Loonman]

4. Wal Mart screwed up

Wal-Mart knew what they were doing and they knew it was wrong, but they did it anyway.



I also disagree with licenses for illegals.

Why should we reward criminal behaviour?

Kinda like getting citizenship without paying taxes.

I call people like that..........freeloaders.

[livinontheedge]

5. If using illegal immigrants helps keep prices down, is that bad?

Consumers win and immigrants win. Assuming the immigrants pay taxes and behave, how is hiring illigals a bad thing? Who loses? If they want to come here and work, I'm all for it. Plus, they tend to vote democratic.

[Brian Sweat]

6. If using illegal immigrants helps keep wages down, is that bad?

[Superfly]

7. I never knew that

illegal immigrants could vote...new one on me.

[Brian Sweat]

8. Haven't you heard? We Democrats have to resort to voter fraud to win.

Seriously though, most illegals come from Mexico, Central America and South America. Through out the years, there have been amnesty programs that allowed illegals who had entered the country prior to a certain date to obtain a green card and begin the naturalization process. About two thirds of Latino who vote, vote for Democrats. So the poster is assuming that if these people eventually become citizens, they will vote Democrat.

This is why Bush was proposing a new Amnesty program a few years ago. There are now more Latinos in America than African Americans and their numbers are growing faster than any other major ethnic group. The Latino vote already has a considerable amount of impact on elections and that influence will only get stronger in the future. The GOP knows that it must decrease the advantage that the Democrats enjoy among Latinos. The problem for them is that when they do something like propose a new amnest program, it pisses off their base.

[MadHound]

9. Long ago I worked for a company that was outsourced by WalMart

Long ago I worked for a company that did inventory audits for WalMart. We worked long hours and were paid shitty wages, but at the time I needed a job. Anyway, after a while we all were advocating for higher pay, but our boss nixed the idea. The reason was that he couldn't afford to eat the higher wages, and if he tried to pass the pay hike onto WalMart, well they would find a way to drop us, contract or no contract, then we would all be out of a job.

My thought is that the employees of the outsourced cleaning company were trying to get a pay hike. WalMart got wind of this, knew the company employed illegals, and covertly busted the company. Sure, they have to put up with a short term shit storm, but in a couple of weeks nobody will remember this. Meanwhile they will outsource their cleaning to another shitty paying company, their overhead will stay low and everybody is happy. It also wouldn't suprise me that the next company they outsource their cleaning to also employs illegals. It just won't be made public, unless they to start getting "uppity".

[pippin]

12. isn't it against the law

to knowingly hire illegals? Bet, however, Wal Mart isn't going to be peanlized.

[OneTwentyoNine]

13. WalMart didn't hire them,only the cleaning company...

Yeah...at the price the cleaning bid came in I'm damn sure WalMart knew what was going on but didn't care,but try proving that in court.

Wal Mart will skate and not ONE of their loyal customers will give a shit as long as prices stay low.

David