Wal-Mart pays $11 million for hiring aliens

HOMELAND SECURITY has extracted $15 million from Wal-Mart and 12 of its contractors in settlement of allegations it hired hundreds of illegal aliens to clean its stores.

Wal-Mart said in a statement on its web site that no criminal charges were filed against it or its associates.

The government will not file criminal charges against Wal-Mart, following a four year investigation.

Wal-Mart will pay the US government $11 million in full settlement of the inquiries while its contractors will shell out another $4 million to the feds.

The chief lawyer at the firm said that the government can use the funds it's shelled out for training and other initiatives that will help it prosecute individuals and firms "that prey on undocumented individuals."

Tom Mars said that Wal-Mart acknowledges its compliance programme didn't include the features necessary to discover people who had breached US immigration laws.

It said it and Homeland Security agreed that Wal-Mart didn't know that independent contractors were hiring illegal aliens. µ

L'INQ
Wal*Mart statement