A federal judge recently denied a motion by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to dismiss the lawsuit against the company filed by undocumented immigrant employees, and approved the sending of court-approved notices to potential plaintiffs. The court found merit in the claim that undocumented immigrant workers have minimum wage and overtime pay rights under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, according to the Associated Press. The lawsuit was originally filed by 17 Mexican and Eastern European janitors, many of who were among the 250 people arrested in an October 23 federal raid on 60 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states. Since the lawsuit was filed, lawyers have found more than 200 other former Wal-Mart contract janitors, many from Eastern Europe, who they say were also illegal immigrants.

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U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced last week that foreign visitors departing from Newark Liberty International Airport are required to adhere to check out procedures before departing on their flight. Visitors must provide their two index finger scans and hold for a photo as a part of a pilot program to test and evaluate an automatic biometric exit process. The exit procedures being piloted at Newark require foreign visitors to go through one of the following three processes:

Under one alternative, visitors departing the United States will check out of the country at exit stations located within the airport. As with the process the visitors encounter upon entry at airports, their travel documents are read, their two index fingers will be scanned at the exit station, their digital picture will be taken, and they will receive a printed receipt that verifies that they have checked out.

The second alternative still uses the exit station but includes an additional step - verifying - at the departure gate. Visitors will be required to present the receipt at their departure gate to confirm that they checked out at the exit station. The workstation attendant will scan the receipt and then ask the visitor to place an index finger on the scanning device. Once the person’s identity is matched to the receipt, the workstation attendant will hand the visitor his or her receipt back, and the visitor will board the airplane.

Another alternative under the pilot program is a biometric check out process with a hand-held device used by a US-Visit workstation attendant at the visitors’ departure gates. In this process, visitors’ travel documents are read, their two index fingers will be scanned, their digital picture will be taken, and they will receive a printed receipt that verifies that they have checked out.

The exit pilot program has been operating for a number of months in Baltimore-Washington International Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport, Denver International Airport, and the Miami International Cruise Line Terminal. It began last week in Newark and San Juan, Puerto Rico. It begins January 25 in San Francisco and January 28 in Detroit.