Feds Crack Down on Employers

In an investigation of Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC, asked Chipotle on April 13, 2011, for documentation related to hiring issues at its 1,092 restaurants. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had recently audited Chipotle’s records in several areas, resulting in the company’s firing of at least 490 workers.

In another case, federal agents arrested the owners and an outside bookkeeper for Chuy’s Mesquite Broiler and detained 40 suspected undocumented workers at 15 locations in California and Arizona. The federal indictment charged the owners with employing about 360 undocumented workers and keeping two payrolls, one for the undocumented workers, for whom no taxes were paid, and another for workers with employment authorization.

For more information on recent ICE enforcement operations, see http://www.ice.gov/news/.