The United States reached an $11 million global civil settlement with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. last week.  The settlement arose out of an investigation into the alleged hiring of undocumented immigrants by independent contractors that provided cleaning services to Wal-Mart stores throughout the United States from 1998 through 2003.

The agencies also announced that 12 corporations that provided contract janitorial services to Wal-Mart stores throughout the United States between 1998 and 2002 have agreed to forfeit an additional $4 million to the United States and have agreed to enter corporate guilty pleas to criminal immigration charges. These corporations were alleged to have actually employed undocumented immigrants.

According to a press release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), this investigation was conducted by ICE, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, with the assistance of the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office, and the Honesdale Police Department.  The investigation evolved out of two prior immigration operations that began in 1998 and 2001, respectively. These operations targeted cleaning contractors that were hiring unauthorized workers from Eastern Europe.  The probes resulted in a series of enforcement actions in 2001 at Wal-Mart stores in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and Missouri, in which roughly 100 illegal aliens were arrested. Several guilty pleas were achieved in connection with these parent cases, and a follow-up investigation was initiated. 

The follow-up investigation culminated on October 23, 2003 with a series of immigration enforcement actions at some 60 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states. In these actions, ICE agents arrested approximately 245 illegal aliens employed by cleaning contractors and put these individuals into deportation proceedings. ICE agents detained illegal aliens at Wal-Mart stores located in Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. 

The press release stated that the $11 million civil settlement and the $4 million criminal forfeiture constitute the two most significant enforcement actions taken by the United States since the laws prohibiting employment of illegal aliens were first enacted in 1986.

The $11 million civil settlement alone is approximately four times larger than any other single payment received by the government in an illegal alien employment case.

According to the release, Wal-Mart agreed to the settlement that does the following :

·         Directs Wal-Mart to make a payment of $11 million through the United States Attorney's Office to the Treasury Forfeiture Fund for the purpose of promoting future law enforcement programs and activities in this field by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

·         Permanently enjoins Wal-Mart from knowingly hiring, recruiting, and continuing to employ  aliens who are not legally authorized to work within the United States;

·         Directs Wal-Mart to establish, over the next 18 months as part of its compliance programs, a means to verify that independent contractors used by Wal-Mart are also taking reasonable steps to comply with immigration laws in their employment practices and cooperate truthfully with any investigation of these matters;

·         Directs Wal-Mart to provide, over the next 18 months, all of its store managers and future store managers with training regarding their legal obligations to prevent the knowing hiring,  recruitment, and continued employment of unauthorized aliens while complying with
pertinent anti-discrimination laws;

·         Directs Wal-Mart to maintain its own established, on-going and pre-existing program of taking reasonable steps to ensure that associates employed by Wal-Mart are authorized to work within the United States, while continuing to ensure Wal-Mart's compliance with pertinent anti-discrimination laws;

·         Directs Wal-Mart to continue to cooperate with the United States in its investigation of the alleged illegal employment practices by independent cleaning contractors previously used by Wal-Mart. 

The release points out that the civil settlement does not entail any admission of wrongdoing by any party.

In addition to this civil settlement, the following 12 cleaning contractor corporations have also been charged in federal court in Pennsylvania for their involvement in the illegal employment of undocumented aliens in Pennsylvania and elsewhere between 1998 and 2002: 

·         IMC Associates, Inc., headquarters located in Ferguson, Illinois

·         Cleanmax Associates, Inc., headquarters located in St. Louis, Missouri

·         Comet Floor Care Associates, Inc., headquarters located in Belleville, Illinois

·         Ironman Maintenance Associates, Inc., headquarters located in Indianapolis, Indiana

·         Precision Cleaning, Inc., headquarters located in Charlotte, North Carolina

·         Champion Floor Care Associates, Inc., headquarters located in Chicago, Illinois

·         National Cleaning Management, Inc., headquarters located in Creve Coeur, Missouri

·         Mercury Floor Care Associate, Inc., headquarters located in Edwardsville, Illinois

·         Allied Floor Care Service, Inc., headquarters located in Atlanta, Georgia

·         World Clean Associates, Inc., headquarters located in St. Louis, Missouri

·         Florida Floor Care, Inc., headquarters located in Bokealia, Florida

·         Express Corporate Services, Inc., headquarters located in Ferguson, Missouri 

Under the terms of the plea agreement, these companies must pay an additional $4 million to the United States.