Franchisee Fined in Illegal-Immigrant Crackdown

From The Wall Street Journal:

In a coup for the government's crackdown on employers of illegal immigrants, a large McDonald's franchisee pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to supplying illegal workers with false identification and agreed to pay a $1 million fine.

The case, which follows a worksite raid last year that swept up 58 immigrant workers at 11 McDonald's outlets in Reno, Nev., is the first conviction involving a franchisee of a major restaurant chain.

Since Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform, the Bush Administration has made worksite enforcement a top priority by conducting raids at companies believed to employ illegal immigrants. In fiscal 2007, arrests for administrative immigration violations at factories and plants jumped to more than 4,000 people, a tenfold increase over 2002. Between Oct. 2007 to July 11, 2008, ICE has made more than 3,500 arrests.

In a sign of the widening crackdown, immigration cases have flooded the federal courts. In April, immigration cases constituted 58% of all federal prosecutions, according to an analysis released Wednesday . . . .