American Apparel to lay off quarter of workforce, presumed illegal aliens

Posted Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 5:26 am

Miriam Jordan of the Wall Street Journal informs us that American Apparel will be laying off about a quarter of their workforce due to a "crackdown" by the Department of Homeland Security (link).

In a letter to employees in English and Spanish, Chief Executive Dov Charney said he was "deeply saddened" that the company has to shed workers who have been at the company for several years.

Mr. Charney, a champion of immigration reform, promised to give the workers priority for jobs when "you are able to get your immigration papers in order."

...American Apparel is likely to face thousands of dollars in penalties for hiring workers who weren't eligible to be employed. The government has said fines may exceed $800 per employee.

While it's good that the DHS is taking some steps, most of the newly-unemployed illegal aliens probably won't return to their home countries. Most will probably remain in the U.S. and seek employment with the sweatshop down the street. See the enforce labor but not immigration laws posts; Janet Napolitano wants those workers to remain the U.S. in order to give them amnesty rather than doing her job and deporting them.

It's also worth noting that AA's lawyer is/was the Mexican government-linked Peter Schey, and that actions like this by the DHS - even if they could be stronger - run counter to the wishes of Antonio Villaraigosa and Fabian Nunez. They and others wanted to make AA a "protected" company.

UPDATE: A copy of Charney's letter is at gawker.com/5352731/dov-charneys-tear+stained-letter-to-his-1500-laid+off-employees
For once the snark exhibited at sites like that is welcome.

Tags: 
wall street journal
immigration enforcement
miriam jordan
enforce labor but not immigration laws
american apparel

Comments

eh (not verified)

Fri, 09/04/2009 - 20:01

Another fine person of the Jewish persuasion. [1]

Links:
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[1] en.wikipedia . org/wiki/Postville:_A_Clash_of_Cultures_in_Heartland_America

Fred Dawes (not verified)

Fri, 09/04/2009 - 20:05

soon this will mean nothing the USA Will soon start its total collapse and with that internal warare like nothing in history has known, it will not be a civil war like 1861-1865 it will be something out of hell. and face facts immigration enforment has and will be nothing but a joke.

petty bourgeois (not verified)

Fri, 09/04/2009 - 22:32

not only a leftist jew, but a canuckistani jew. double the left wing nuttiness from our neighbors to the north. only criminals employ other criminals. someone in our government with balls should sue the philandering scumbag dov charney and the treasonous peter schey within an inch of their lives. they profit from the importation of a permanent, hostile, invading underclass.

Fred Dawes (not verified)

Thu, 09/10/2009 - 02:31

read eh post, but both. "jews and muslims have no culture", in fact the last thing a jew did right was to come here like so many have, the last thing mulsims have done right is to come here, we need all the jews here with all the muslim here so we can watch both murder each other. God will put all jews and all muslims in hell, we only want to keep the young and good looking woman alike for fun and games if you know what i mean?. become a person who loves the GODS! And be free in your heart and with the will to be free comes many good things of life, forget the one god get in line with the many gods its a new idea after all we have been doing the one god thing for way to many years..love is all you need.