Chipotle, the nationwide Mexican food chain with more than 1,000 restaurants, found itself the target of an immigration crackdown in Minnesota this month that has forced the company to fire about half of its workforce there.
According to a Reuters news service report, company officials have been warned to expect a similar scouring of its employee lists in Washington, D.C. and Virginia.
The focus by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on employers logically led to the fast-food business. As Reuters reported, “the industry historically pays low wages, offers minimum benefits and has a high turnover. Illegals are hired because they work hard, are loyal and will go the extra mile to hold down a job.”
While reliable numbers aren’t available for illegals, statistics show that immigrants, both legal and illegal, account for about a quarter of the workers in the restaurant and food services industry and their numbers are up in recent years.
According to the Pew Hispanic Center, about 12 percent of the workforce in food preparation and service in 2008, the most recent year for which numbers were available, was illegal.
Co-Chief Executive of Chi-potle, Monty Moran, was the company source for the Reuters article. The lesson to be learned, he said, was that immigration reform is imperative.
About 1.8 million foreign-born workers are now em-ployed in restaurants nationwide. If Pew’s estimate is correct, at least 220,000 of those are illegals and should be discharged. The employers also should be fined or subjected to other penalties for disobeying the law.
A better alternative would be to pass laws that give employed immigrants without police records who have been in the country long enough to establish themselves a path to permanent residency, as was proposed by President George Bush, in partnership with John McCain, years ago.
Because this reasonable so-lution was rejected, the nation is left with punitive policies which are exceedingly expensive to enforce, which cannot be enforced fairly and which do not recognize our nation’s need for low-wage workers in our service and agricultural industries.
It’s time to admit failure and begin again.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
