My company is a produce supplier and we use the I-9 program to verify legal status for all employees. We are regularly audited by our customers for compliance for legal labor and no child labor. It can be done and yes it has caused labor costs to rise.
I can attest to knowing that for a fact concerning our vendors with Firehouse Subs at the time I was a franchise
It seems there is a sensible process in the rhetoric. If that means deportation to a processing facility whereby employment/background is determined, then so be it. It seems several things need to be achieved: secure the border, process productive illegals whereby they receive some sort of "worker" status, and ensure that "workers" pay into the US system for economic impact. Stop picking nits and get to work on this.
You can start deportation of the illegals especially those with criminal history. You also have to secure the border. I have used the example of the leaky roof, you have to fix the roof first before you repair the floor.
My proposition is that the lettuce, meats, etc are all from agriculture that is the source complaint of “illegal” workers. The meat packing industry is fairly well documented on this. it is very possible that Firehouse subs does not source any meat from the 5 main meatpackers.
Does Firehouse contract directly with farms and ranches? Or do they use middle companies? Given the size and scope of Firehouse, I doubt they hold contracts with individual farms/ranches. If not, chances are undocumented immigrants were involved in keeping prices lower for Firehouse. Especially when you consider 50% of dairy workers and 40% of meat processors are undocumented. And when it comes to fruits and veggies, the numbers are higher. Even if Firehouse somehow managed not to have a single undocumented as part of their chain, they would still be affected by mass deportation of agriculture working immigrants. Because the entire food chain would be disrupted. Supply would be significantly cut, and businesses would be competing for these limited resources. And what happens when supply is cut but demand remains relatively constant? They go up. Subway, for example, has even more buying power than Firehouse. If Subway's supply chain is dry, they wouldn't hesitate to poach others and offer more money to ensure Subways are fully stocked. It's not just food supply chains that would suffer. Many immigrants work in other verticals as well, such as construction. It's estimated we need 1.5 million new homes to keep up with demand. Even if that number drops with deportations, it won't be zero. And without the 1 million undocumented construction workers here, we won't come close to meeting housing demands. And again, what happens to prices when demand outstrips supply? They go up.
As best as I can tell, one of the main meat suppliers for Firehouse is now owned by Hormel. Would you really like me to link to a small sampling of the many immigration raids at Hormel facilities? It is pretty easy to bypass these requirements. Far easier than actually getting in the country.
And how does one do that? We have upped the spending on the border by many multiples. Spent huge amounts on capital for border fences, walls, barbed wire, hiring agents, supplying them with vehicles, building prisons, etc. And, yet, despite all this, the border isn't secure. Tell me what, specifically, we need to buy in order to be considered secure? If the answer is "I don't know," perhaps we should analyze why, after decades of whining about it, the answer is "I don't know." Or, alternatively, we can admit that laws aren't great at stopping economic activity and better incentivize people to engage in economic activity within the law (e.g., don't handle immigration as a centrally planned system that determines what labor needs are).
You finish securing your border with a wall, razor wire or personnel. If you say that doesn't work, don't tell Texas. Migrant crossings fall sharply along Texas border, shifting to Arizona and California
so you say- since the founders of Firehouse sold the company to the parent company of BK, a Canadian Company, 3 or 4 years ago nothing would surprise me. I sold out in 2013, and at that point it was not going on. Again, if they are here illegally, then they ALL have to go. The companies that are knowingly hiring illegals need to be prosecuted
Here is the border wall in California: I see all three right there. And yet, you apparently don't think that is secure...
It is not. It is a picture from the border wall in California, taken from this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/27/us/border-wall-california.html