U.S. fast food caught in immigration crosshairs

[Joanne98]

Chipotle Mexican Grill has a lot going for it -- an upscale burrito concept, a hip and eco-friendly image, expansion plans galore and a 500 percent-plus stock price gain in just over two years.

And then it has something not going its way -- a federal crackdown on its immigrant labor force that has so far forced Chipotle to fire hundreds of allegedly illegal workers in the state of Minnesota, perhaps more than half its staff there.

The probe is widening. Co-Chief Executive Monty Moran told Reuters on Friday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has also issued "notices of inspection" for restaurants in Washington D.C. and Virginia.

Investors in the Wall Street darling are taking note and one firm, Calvert Investments, plans to talk to Chipotle about the large number of undocumented workers uncovered.

Dependence on illegal labor is the elephant in the room for the U.S. restaurant business. And experts say the Chipotle ICE investigations are a wake-up call for an industry that is one of America's biggest employers and generates over $300 billion in annual sales, according to research firm IBISWorld Inc.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/08/us-usa-immigration-fastfood-idUSTRE71664T20110208

[angry citizen]

1. illegal workers

This will never change until the people who do the hiring actually go to jail for it.

[fasttense]

2. I once listened to a very famous restaurant chef

complain bitterly about how Americans don't work. This is why he "had" to hire illegal immigrants. He was an illegal employer. I think what really bothered him was that he had to pay all those "extra costs" when he hired someone with a valid Social Security number.

If the owners were arrested, jailed and severely fined for hiring illegal workers, then we wouldn't have so many illegal employers.

Chipotle Mexican Grill is an illegal employer.

[Joanne98]

3. I'm sick of them saying that., It's just an excuse. They just want more money.