Audit flags potential fake worker documents at Fiesta Foods (The Spokesman-Review)

Audit flags potential fake worker documents at Fiesta Foods

May 5, 2011
Compiled from wire reports

YAKIMA, Wash. – At least 24 current and former employees of Fiesta Foods in Yakima were recently identified by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as carrying potentially fake documentation, a company attorney said Wednesday. ICE notified Fiesta Foods in April of the results of an employment audit conducted over several previous months, Julie Pace, a Phoenix-based attorney working for the company, said in a telephone interview. As a result of the audit, the grocer on April 26 fired some employees, said Pace, declining to specify how many were let go. She said others identified as potentially illegal are formally contesting ICE’s challenge, though Pace wouldn’t say how many are in this category. ICE has not accused the company of knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.