GOODY TWO SHOES: Just How “American” Is American Apparel?
An audit by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Services (ICE) has determined that 1,600 of the 4,500 employees - one out of three - at American Apparel's Los Angeles factories are forged documented aliens, reports FOX News:
The company's founder, a Canadian immigrant who attended private school in Connecticut and first ran his clothing company out of his Tufts University dorm room in Massachusetts, portrays himself, and his company, as a proponent of immigrant, gay and workers' rights.
Dov Charney told NPR in April 2006 that 75 percent of his workers are Mexican - and the legal status of each and every one had been checked.
The handling of the American Apparel investigation “is the most prominent demonstration of a new strategy by the Obama administration to curb the employment of illegal immigrants by focusing on employers who hire them - and doing so in a less confrontational manner than in years past,” reports The New York Times:
[N]o federal agents with criminal warrants stormed the company’s factories and rounded up employees. Instead, the federal immigration agency sent American Apparel a written notice that it faced civil fines and would have to fire any workers confirmed to be unauthorized. …
Unlike the approach of the Bush administration, which brought criminal charges in its final two years against many illegal immigrant workers, the new effort makes broader use of fines and other civil sanctions, federal officials said Thursday.
Federal agents will concentrate on businesses employing large numbers of workers suspected of being illegal immigrants, the officials said, and will reserve tough criminal charges mostly for employers who serially hire illegal immigrants and engage in wage and labor violations. …
Immigration officials have not made clear how they intend to deal with workers who are unable to prove their legal immigration status in the course of inspections, but they said there was no moratorium on deportations. …
The company has 30 days to dispute the agency’s claims and give immigrant employees time to prove that they are authorized to work in the
Immigration officials tell The Times that American Apparel has been fined roughly $150,000 to date. Critics of the administration’s new enforcement approach worry that the fines will just become another cost of doing business and will not deter employers from hiring illegal aliens.
For his part, Charney says the recession will enable him to replace any illegal workers with those born in the
[Hat Tip: The Heel, an Ivy-educated attorney with a prestigious
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