Illegal Immigration & The Restaurant Industry


With the Bush administration now cracking down on illegal immigration and the labor that the immigrants provide, California employers may feel the crunch more than anyone. In particular, the food and restaurants industries are fearing the effects of the new mandates. As one farm employer points out, if they ask the workers too many questions, the ACLU will blow whistles, but now if they don’t ask enough, the government will come running.

Some people, like Bix’s Bruce Hill, aren’t terribly worried about the new developments, mainly because he doesn’t think that the government can or will enforce it:

Hill, who says he goes by the book, said there is no question that undocumented workers are the backbone of the industry.”We hire hardworking people,” he said. “And if he or she is a kick-butt employee, we (the industry) look the other way.”Hill said he and his partners have a human resources staff that painstakingly goes through each worker’s paperwork to ensure his restaurants are following the law. But there is no way to guarantee that some employees aren’t using false documentation.


With the Bush administration now cracking down on illegal immigration and the labor that the immigrants provide, California employers may feel the crunch more than anyone. In particular, the food and restaurants industries are fearing the effects of the new mandates. As one farm employer points out, if they ask the workers too many questions, the ACLU will blow whistles, but now if they don’t ask enough, the government will come running.

Some people, like Bix’s Bruce Hill, aren’t terribly worried about the new developments, mainly because he doesn’t think that the government can or will enforce it:

Employers wary of new crackdown on illegal immigration [SFGate]

[Photo courtesy: USDA]

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Illegal Immigration & The Restaurant Industry