Hire an Illegal Worker, Lose Your Business
Arizona’s tough new immigration law has companies running scared
— Business Week
In the 20-plus years since starting out as a cook, Jason LeVecke has
built up one of the biggest restaurant chains in Arizona. He now boasts
1,200 employees manning 57 Carl’s Jr.s across the state–ten of them
added this year alone. But on Jan. 1, a new law takes effect in Arizona
that would severely punish businesses caught hiring illegal immigrants.
So LeVecke is looking for growth outside his home state, and will build
25 new restaurants in Texas. Unless the legal situation improves, he
says: “We won’t add any new sites in Arizona. It’s too great a risk.”In the wake of the federal government’s failure to reform
immigration laws, Arizona joins the more than 100 states and
municipalities that have taken matters into their own hands in hopes of
stemming the tide of illegal immigrants. But Arizona’s law is by far
the harshest toward business. A company caught knowingly employing an
undocumented worker has its license suspended for up to ten days. Get
caught a second time, and a company loses its license to operate
altogether–what Governor Janet Napolitano has called the “business
death penalty.”[snip]
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