Those who hire illegally are the ones who should be fined. Arrests are a waste of taxpayers’ money.

I spent six years in politics. These raids have nothing to do with immigrants, and everything to do with playing to a base of support. The hardworking targets of these raids, and their communities, won’t soon forget this administration’s priorities.

Unless they play a role in hiring or controlling employment practices, franchisors should not be held liable. This is the fundamental legal principle of agency, where you can only be held accountable for the actions of another if you exerted appropriate control over them.

Given the federal government’s lamentable understanding of moral-legal principles and its muscular tendencies in enforcement, it may well ignore this and try to assert vicarious liability. As much as this is immoral and unconstitutional, retailers and franchisors need to be aware of the hassle and expense of fighting such overreach.

Perhaps we’ll see sanctuary retailers. I believe that knowingly hiring undocumented workers is unlawful. But the raid on 7-Eleven stores is about showcasing the arresting of people for political gain, not deterring unlawful hiring practices overall.
It just makes me wonder aloud as to how many dollars are being spent and what initiatives currently exist to prevent Russia from interfering in our elections.

This is really nothing new, despite the current Administration’s efforts to take credit for “getting tough” on immigration. Some of us can remember similar efforts during the Obama Administration including the April 2010 ICE action against Mike Provenzano’s wildly successful Pro’s Ranch Markets in Arizona. As a result of that investigation 300 people — or approximately 20 percent of the company’s total workforce — were terminated in one day. The raid was later cited by company officials as a major contributor to the firm’s eventual bankruptcy and sale. Many, including Mike Provenzano himself, saw the ICE action as political in the same way that many BrainTrusters are discussing the 7-Eleven raids today. And there’s no doubt that presidents gain big points with conservative voters by getting tough on undocumented workers in border states. Oddly, considering the current criticism against him, especially by President Trump, President Obama became known in immigration advocacy circles as, “The Deporter-In-Chief,” for sending more undocumented immigrants out of the country than his past two predecessors combined. So to the first question,… Read more »

The impact of these raids is hard to measure. There are undoubtedly other companies that if they faced the same scrutiny would be found to have the same issue. The real impact is if it forces companies to be more vigilant in their hiring process.

This is purely politically motivated and the only impact that will be felt is in the local communities where these 7-Eleven stores operated, and most likely that will not be a positive sentiment. Producing only 21 suspects through this action is a pretty poor number that only looks sensational if played up in the reporting. If ICE really wanted to produce a large number of targets, they would have more carefully chosen their targets in the hospitality sector as past administrations have done.