The operator of six Wichita McDonald's restaurant franchises have been charged by prosecutors for knowingly hiring an undocumented illegal immigrant.
McCalla Corporation, which runs the Wichita locations, admits its director of operations knew the employee had a fake green card, according to the Associated Press.
U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said that a tentative plea agreement has been reached in which the company will pay $400,000 in fines and forfeitures. McDonald's has been charged with only one count, but that the investigation revealed it knowingly hired numerous illegal immigrants.
Grissom said the case should send a message to employers that employing undocumented workers isn't worth it.
"Employment is the primary driving force behind illegal immigration," Grissom said. "I'm calling on all Kansas employers to strengthen their hiring practices and to help us safeguard this nation by hiring and maintaining a lawful workforce."
In a written statement released by McCalla's attorneys, Lee Thompson and David K. Link, McCalla President Roy McCalla, said: "I believe that corporations should be and are responsible for the acts of their employees. This corporation takes seriously its obligation to comply with the law and takes full responsibility for this single isolated incident charged by the government based on the action of one individual who is no longer employed by the company. I want to make it very clear that this one incident does not reflect the corporate policies of the McCalla Corporation or those of its franchisor corporation."
The attorneys' statement adds: "The McCalla Corporation is a Wichita company which has consistently employed procedures regarding its hiring of employees to insure that they are documented workers. The one count Information today which charges aiding and abetting the use of an unlawful document by a single worker signals the fact that its procedures have been almost universally successful. The fact that one worker slipped through the cracks is not an indictment of the company's efforts to comply with the law."
