Effort to deter hiring of illegal migrants has led to 3 cases since ’08.
Federal raids on Danny’s Family Car Wash outlets in the Valley in August led to charges of hiring illegal immigrants and engaging in document fraud and identity theft.
When federal authorities raided nearly 20 Danny’s Family Car Wash outlets across the Valley in an August crackdown tied to suspected illegal-immigrant workers, there were protests outside the courthouse and a sizable public buzz about the case.
The businesses were indicted, along with 14 lower-level managers, while 179 undocumented workers were detained briefly and released.
The events momentarily renewed the passions surrounding Arizona’s immigration-enforcement policies. They also served as a reminder that one of those laws, known as employer sanctions, has changed business practices for most employers but yielded few court cases for those who skirt the law.
The employer-sanctions law went into effect in 2008 and was intended as a way for state authorities to civilly punish business owners who knowingly hired illegal workers. But there have been only three known court cases statewide since then. The Danny’s case stands as perhaps the biggest warning to employers, although it is a criminal matter handled by federal authorities, not state officials.
Some prosecutors say the state’s law, which received the legal blessings of the U.S. Supreme Court, has a loophole that legislators have refused to close and leaves authorities powerless to conduct meaningful investigations.
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