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California eatery raided by immigration authorities
A popular California chef has been indicted for 12 felony counts of knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.
Michel Malecot has operated an upscale French Gourmet restaurant for 31 years, but a recent raid by immigration officials revealed that the eatery’s staff contained many illegal immigrants, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The illegal immigrants weren’t simply cheap labor; some of them had been employed at the restaurant for 15 years as pastry chefs, bakers and cake decorators.
Malecot has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which carry a maximum of five years in prison for each count and a $250,000 fine for each count. He claims that illegal immigrants only made up a tiny fraction of the hundreds of workers he has employed over the years.
“We’re just regular guys trying to make a living,” he told the news source.
Immigration authorities are hoping that the high-profile raid will show other businesses that hiring illegal immigrants is a bad policy.
“Even a small amount of concerted, uniform enforcement can get a lot of attention — and it has,” John Morton, chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told the news provider.
Participants in the EB-5 visa program can avoid immigration worries when they become eligible for their U.S. green card by investing $1 million in an American business and producing 10 new jobs.