Immigration agency targets upscale San Diego restaurant

[pampango]

Source: LA Times

Federal officials hope the prosecution of Michel Malecot, owner of San Diego's French Gourmet, will deter other employers from knowingly hiring undocumented workers. But when federal authorities raided his eatery, they discovered that his recipe for success included a staff of illegal immigrant workers from Mexico — pastry chefs, bakers and cake decorators, some of whom had worked the ovens for 15 years. The chef, popular in San Diego catering and philanthropic circles, was indicted last month on 12 felony counts of knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

The indictment reflects a new approach by federal authorities as they crack down on the hiring of illegal immigrants in the United States. After years of conducting sweeps of undocumented laborers, the federal government is now focusing more on the employers who knowingly hire them. Obama called those raids ineffective and criticized them for dividing families and not holding employers accountable for creating a magnet for illegal crossers.

Malecot, 52, has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he could face a maximum of five years in prison per count and a $250,000 fine per count. The government is also seeking to seize the restaurant, which includes the bakery and a catering business as well as a neighboring building owned by Malecot, saying the property should be forfeited because it was used in a crime.

But the government's strategy seems to have accomplished one of its goals — using a high-profile case to warn other businesses that they, too, could be hit. In San Diego, the French Gourmet case has generated extensive media coverage. The strategy contrasts sharply with that of the Bush administration, which conducted highly publicized work-site raids — with armed immigration agents — that led to the arrest and deportation of thousands of illegal workers but few criminal prosecutions of employers.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/immigration/la-me-imm-gourmet-20100525,0,2927377.story

[Bobbieo]

1. It's about time to go after the employers. Long Overdue!!!

[Grassy Knoll]

2. Maybe he can use buns and bagels for bail . n/t

[AlphaCentauri]

3. and it had to be a french restaurant

Mexicans, french restaurants, that would make the xenopublicans happy.

[izquierdista]

4. "immigrants"?

I wonder how many of employees lived in TJ and crossed the border every day to come to work.

[blondeatlast]

13. Good point. nt

[Cat in the Corner]

5. I find it curious...

...that they're going after an independent business with maybe 20-30 employees total, rather than a chain, for example, Denny's, which employs thousands. I'm not condoning the hiring of illegals, but this guy is small fish compared to the hiring practices of the national (international?) companies. Trust me, no one is going to crack down on the huge corporations; they are too politically connected to get scrutinized. This reminds me of the raid a few years ago on a small company in Southern California that made wooden palates. There was much news coverage showing Immigration was cracking down on employers, but again, they netted a dozen or so undocumented workers.

I suspect this raid was precipitated by a rival restaurant with some political clout to hurt his competition. I live in San Diego, and we have always been a genteelly corrupt city.

[Suich]

6. Welcome to DU, Cat in the Corner!

Wow! This is the first time I've ever seen someone with just 1 post!

Hope you have fun here!

:party:

[Macoy]

7. This is a great start

This is a great start. I hope the guy spends several years in prison. But as mentioned earlier..why not hit the large corporations? Sending the entire Board of Directors of Tyson to prison will do more to stop illegal immigration than arresting the owner of a restaurant.


Macoy

[Adsos Letter]

11. Welcome to DU!

[slackmaster]

14. It's not any old independent business. It's a reputable and well-liked one that's been around...

...for a long time.

I live in San Diego, and we have always been a genteelly corrupt city.

So true on many levels!

[sendero]

8. I've been saying..

... that this approach would solve our illegal immigration problem overnight, and I still think that.

But, I know for a fact that here in Dallas over half of the restaurants in operation would qualify for prosecution under these statutes.

So why do they just pick one guy? What did he do to piss them off, there are thousands if not tens of thousands of businesses in CA using known illegals.

This looks like "selective enforcement", where laws are ignored until it is convenient for one particular person to be prosecuted. I don't care much for "selective enforcement", in fact there ought to be some sort of "adverse possession" rule about laws. Don't enforce them for some period of time and they become null and void.

[pampango]

9. The Obama administration is auditing employers rather than conducting workplace raids like Bush.

They've been doing this for quite a while but the enforcement actions aren't as dramatic as workplace raids so they get little publicity.

http://www.truthout.org/hundreds-union-janitors-fired-under-pressure-from-feds59210

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/us/30factory.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

[Adsos Letter]

12. I agree about the appearance of selective enforcement in this case

Why not conduct these in batches? Say, 10 businesses per day.

[Dappleganger]

10. It's about damn time.

Big or small or in-between, these employers know exactly what they are doing wrong and should go DOWN.

[MicaelS]

15. If Republicans think "Show us your papers"

Is good for all those darker skinned little people out there, let's see what happens when a bunch of rich white business owners get told the same thing.