06/26/2010
RICO prosecutorial overreach is a big problem, but I’m not sympathetic in this case, via Overlawyered.com, where Walter Olson writes:
After Mohawk Industries settlement, many employers could be sitting ducks for suits claiming that hiring illegal workers is RICO violation [Helman, Forbes, earlier]
In 2002, I did an article about a similar suit, brought by Howard Foster, the same lawyer who won the Mohawk Industries suit, against illegal alien employer Tyson Foods, explaining that
RICO is a brutal weapon. It has been misused in the past, for example to attack political dissent.
But these suits are legitimate:
- A crime has been committed. If Tyson is guilty, they’ve violated the Immigration and Nationality Act in order to make money. The technical name for this is “enterprise crime” and of course, it’s “Organized Crime” even if they don’t have guns.
- Tyson made money from it. Tyson has 120,000 employees. (Every dollar an hour that they can lower their average wages is worth roughly a quarter of a billion dollars annually.)
- American workers lost money. (See above.)
- They’re suing.
We at VDARE.COM wish them luck.
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