Poultry giant Tyson Foods Inc. was sued Tuesday under federal racketeering laws, becoming the latest and largest target in an attempt to punish employers of illegal immigrant workers.
Corporate and immigration law experts said the approach has the potential to become a private "enforcement tool" supplanting federal employer sanctions laws, but only if plaintiffs can pass the high bar of proof required under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute.
Similar suits have been backed by supporters of strict immigration law enforcement, who say the prospect of treble damages under RICO could force employers to think hard before hiring undocumented workers. That could have a big effect in California, where roughly half of the estimated 7 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. are employed.
Filed in federal court in Tennessee on behalf of four U.S. citizen employees, the civil lawsuit contends that Tyson sought out illegal immigrants because they accept below-market wages and "deplorable" working conditions. Legally authorized workers suffered as a result, the suit claims.
In December, Tyson was indicted by the Justice Department for allegedly conspiring to smuggle undocumented workers to 15 of its plants in the South. A Tyson spokesman said the company had not yet seen the complaint and could not comment.
The suit is the fourth of its type filed by Chicago corporate attorney Howard Foster, who has received some support from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington-based group that favors strict immigration laws and enforcement.
The lawsuits also borrow from the language of immigrant worker advocates by making the case that undocumented workers are vulnerable and exploited. The two camps often are at odds.
Traditionally associated with mobsters and tax evaders, RICO was expanded in 1996 to cover the hiring, smuggling or harboring of illegal immigrants.
To succeed, a RICO lawsuit must first prove that the underlying crime was committed and then show that a racketeering enterprise--such as a pact between a smuggler and an employer--existed on top of that.
A RICO conviction carries the penalty of treble damages. "That's enough to get any employer's attention," said Mike Hethmon, staff attorney with the immigration reform group. "People hire illegal aliens not for ideological but financial reasons."
