We have heard similar stories such as this over the last few years.  The charges against Taqueria El Balazo stem from a 2008 incident in which U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE)  agents raided 11 El Balazo restaurants and arrested 63 undocumented workers, drawing the ire of immigration advocates across the Bay Area.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, they later re-hired at least 10 of the illegal employees after receiving written notification from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security investigators informing them of the employees’ identities. BIG mistake!

Proprietors of the restaurant chain behind Haight Street’s popular Taqueria El Balazo pleaded guilty to a series of violations surrounding immigration, social security, and tax evasion practices.  The owners  told the court they under-reported employee wages to the payroll company; they admitted that, based upon their actions, the amount of employment taxes paid to the Internal Revenue Service were understated, and admitted to hiring employees they knew were not legally allowed to work in this country. According to the plea agreement, between August 2007 and August 2008, they employed more than 100 illegal aliens.

Owners, Marino and Nicole Sandoval. are scheduled to be sentenced December 14^th and could face up to 20 years in prison and a half a million dollars in fines, according to San Ramon Express News. Sandoval’s brother, Francisco Sandoval, who owns and operates the restaurant chain with the couple, pleaded guilty to tax charges last August.

Taqueria El Balazo currently operates nine restaurants throughout the Bay Area in addition to its Haight Street outpost.

For more on this story:  http://www.sanramonexpress.com/news/show_story.php?id=4368

What do restaurant owners need to consider:

• Are you training your employees who are charged with employment eligibility verification?  How thorough are you when it comes to the I-9 process of employment verification?  It’s time to get serious about this.
• Have you been proactive and called for a Form I-9 Audit by a qualified and experienced immigration firm that specializes in this practice area?  We strongly recommend you consider this.
• Are you screening, coaching, training and counseling your employees to ensure compliance with immigration laws?

This is very serious business for all employers and is the major enforcement tool for the economic and political climate we are in at the present time.  The goal on both the state and federal level is to punish egregious employers and convince farmers, restaurant owners, clothing manufacturers, meatpackers and other employers to change their behavior.

Plain and simple, the national debate is heating up over mandatory E-Verify.  Some members of Congress seem intent on pushing the issue without taking into account the harm they will cause for American businesses and workers.  Now is the time to get your house, so to speak, in order.