Wal-Mart announced on Tuesday that the company had received a “target letter” from the U.S. Attorney’s Office on October 31 following an October 23 raid.  The letter stated that Wal-Mart had allegedly violated federal immigration laws in employing illegal immigrants and as a result, the company is under investigation.  That morning Wal-Mart stock fell 33 cents to $58.71 on the New York Stock Exchange in morning trading. 

The government's case rests on Wal-Mart's presumed knowledge that its contractors were hiring illegal workers based on raids in the past. However, the government has not revealed any evidence of actual knowledge on Wal-Mart's part.

The raids spanned 61 stores in 21 states and resulted in the arrests of 250 allegedly illegal workers.  The raids focused primarily on the floor-cleaning employees.  Ten workers were directly hired by Wal-Mart as in-house floor cleaners.  The remaining workers were employed by companies hired by Wal-Mart for cleaning services.  The subcontractors appear to have violated overtime, Social Security, and worker’s compensation laws.  Wal-Mart uses about 100 contractors to clean its 1,000 stores. 

Company officials claim that Wal-Mart had no knowledge of the illegal workers.  In response, federal law enforcement officials contend that in 1998, federal agents raided Wal-Mart stores and found 102 illegal immigrant janitors.  Wal-Mart, the government contends, should and must have been on notice of possible illegal workers in their stores. 

The workers were taken to local immigration offices, and while most of the immigrants were released, only those with criminal records were detained.  The workers came from 18 different countries.

In 2002, Wal-Mart had sales of $244.5 billion.  The company employs approximately 1.1 million people in the United States and 300,000 abroad. 

Wal-Mart could face criminal charges and possible fines of up to $10,000 per illegal worker, a total of $2.5 million.