Reversing the tide of illegal immigration is not a one-time operation. After all, Rome wasn’t invaded in a day. Elected officials can’t collar a single undocumented swimmer and expect the public to reward them for a job well done.
Successfully discouraging these lawbreakers requires affecting both supply and demand over the long term. The “social justice” crowd focuses on supply when it says we can’t deport an estimated 12 million illegals already here. But why should taxpayers be on the hook for transportation costs? We certainly didn’t pay to import the problem, why should we pay to export the trespassers?
The bulk of the illegal population will return home the same way they got here when conditions in the US are no longer attractive. (We saw a small example where I live when the Prince William Co. Virginia Board of Supervisors passed an initial anti–illegal alien ordinance and hundreds escaped this hellhole for more enlightened jurisdictions like DC, Maryland and Fairfax County.)
The most effective way to reduce the attractiveness of life here in El Norte is to make it harder to find a job. But in contrast to President Obama who is successfully discouraging business from hiring anyone, but I would prefer we concentrate our efforts on denying jobs to people who shouldn’t be here in the first place.
This is where the continuing commitment on the part of elected officials becomes crucial. And Chipotle, a national chain of burrito emporiums, provides the perfect example. The company wants board approval for a new restaurant to join the four others already in business in the county.
For those who are not familiar with the chain, even a cursory glance at the company’s website shows Chipotle is no mere South-of-the-border frijole franchiser. After spending my formative years in West Texas, I’m accustomed to ordering a burrito with gas, but at Chipotle your comida comes with a side order of pretension.
Chipotle’s corporate motto is “Food with Integrity”, but unfortunately the policy does not appear to extend to the personnel department. The Washington Examiner reports La Migra is cracking down on 60 Chipotle restaurants in the DC–Virginia for hiring illegal aliens and the Wall Street Journal says a criminal investigation of company management has been opened.
In defense, a Chipotle spokesman explains, “Chipotle has "very robust" policies in place that "ensure that everyone we hire is legally authorized to work in this country.”
Here’s hoping the company’s E. coli prevention policies are more “robust” than its hiring practices, because once the investigation began, Chipotle had to fire at least 40 employees in Northern Virginia. And last December 400 employees who were wrapping the burritos Americans didn’t want to wrap in Minnesota were told to vamoose.
And keep in mind these employees weren’t hired by some rogue franchise owner that’s enlisted in a modern day Reconquista. The more than 1,000 Chipotle stores are company owned and operated by a management that boasts, “It’s our promise to run our business in a way that doesn’t exploit animals, people or the environment. It is the philosophy that guides every decision we make at Chipotle.”
But the promise evidently does not apply to exploiting lax immigration enforcement.
In fact, Reuters quotes some fired illegals that assert Chipotle “ignored signs that pointed to the illegal status of some of its workers.”
Locally, the Chipotle request for the new location is being reviewed by Planning-Environment-Land Use-Transportation Committee and one civic association leader is concerned that the design of the Chipotle store “harmonize” with the other structures in the shopping center.
But what’s vastly more important is that Chipotle hiring practices “harmonize” with board of supervisor policies that discourage illegal aliens. This Chipotle request should be dead in the water until such time as company management guarantees in writing that every employee working in the new and four previously opened stores in the county is legally permitted to be employed in the United States.
Whether that means Chipotle checks all employees with the E–Verify database, requires they have a valid US passport or limits itself to hiring Republicans the process must be legally binding and enforceable by the board. Without that assurance, the board should deny the permit.
Politicians are always eager to take credit for “creating jobs” and allowing a new Chipotle store to open will do just that. But it’s equally important to make sure the new jobs don’t go to employees who just arrived here from Acuña.
Michael R. Shannon (The Whole Shebang (mostly)) is a Virginia-based public relations and media consultant with MANDATE: Message, Media & Public Relations who has worked in over 75 elections on three continents and a handful of islands.
