This is mostly derived from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, a New York Times owned newspaper circulated in N. California.
There is a company named NeilMed Pharmaceuticals in Santa Rosa, CA. The company is owned by a Dr. Ketan Mehta and his wife. They produce lines of nasal and sinus rinses. NeilMed’s website reports:
“With some help from Oprah Winfrey and the Internet, Santa Rosa’s NeilMed Pharmaceuticals Inc. is in growth mode, tripling sales of its sinus products in just two years.” Here is a link to NeilMed’s website:
http://www.neilmed.com/usa/pd.php
According to the Press Democrat, Neilmed was visited on February 10, 2009 by agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who sought to examine the employment records of the 250 person workforce. As an owner and executive in small businesses, I am certain they were looking for I-9 forms, which are required for every employee. By law, these forms must be properly completed, signed by the company’s designated employment officer, and maintained on file.
Exactly what transpired next is a little fuzzy and in some dispute, but the bottom line is that Neilmed (assumedly with the cooperation of ICE) either offered to let employees resign or fired them rather than have their employment records turned over to ICE. The net result was that 175 out of the 250 employees (that’s 70%!) immediately signed letters of resignation and were allowed to leave unhindered by immigration authorities. Later reports say that more of the workforce just didn’t show up the next day, as they expected ICE would be there and take action against them.
On Friday, February 20, the Press Democrat reported the following:
"On Thursday, about 100 of the former NeilMed workers met with an attorney and immigrant rights activist at a Santa Rosa park to talk about their situation. Rudy Balderama, a Los Angeles attorney representing an immigrant rights group, said he’s investigating whether any of their rights were violated. “All the workers affected are Latinos,” he said. “They were forced to sign these resignation papers.”
“The company may have violated California’s notice, wage and hour laws,” Balderama said.”
In various news articles, the now ex-employees complained that they had been paid less than the minimum wage, forced to work long hours without overtime, were not given rest and lunch breaks, frequently had to lift more than the law allows, etc., etc.
I see a big lawsuit coming here!
So it looks like ICE doesn’t have any interest in enforcing our anti-illegal immigration laws. Rather than gathering up the illegal workers and putting them on the next bus back to Mexico or Central or South America, they just let them disappear back into the local community to seek some other illegal employment.
Rather than being shut down for employment violations, at Neilmed it’s business as usual. The Press Democrat reported this week that all the vacated jobs have been filled. They didn’t report on how many of those new employees are illegals, but when there isn’t any penalty for employing illegals, why would a company want to get involved in all that employment and social security tax withholding, legal working hours, workman’s compensation, and OSHA stuff?
This “CHANGED” America is truly a different place than the one that I was taught about when growing up. Obeying the laws seems to be optional, and totally secondary to who you know and how you are connected.
Happy RRing,
Jerry