Catherwood LibraryILR School

In the latest example of a recently developed legal tactic for bringing private causes of action against employers who intentionally hire undocumented immigrants in order to lower their labor costs, several former employees of Tyson Foods Inc. filed suit against their former employer under federal anti-racketeering laws yesterday. The workers allege that Tyson Foods conspired to smuggle undocumented workers into its plants in order to lower labor costs---a charge also leveled against Tyson Foods by the U.S. Justice Department in a criminal case filed last year (see WIT for Jan. 25, 2002). The recent reinstatement of a similar case by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has supported such suits for treble damages brought under a 1996 extension of the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization act to human smuggling cases.