February 14, 2008

After six years, a very bad lawsuit finally gets tossed. The lawsuit by four workers claimed that the poultry operator's allegedly knowing employment of illegal aliens amounted to racketeering and injured them because it would have been constrained to offer them higher wages if not for the aliens' availability.

The judge's order said "plaintiffs failed to demonstrate Tyson was harboring or concealing illegal aliens" at its plants in Shelbyville, Tenn.; Ashland, Gadsden and Heflin in Alabama; Center, Texas; Glen Allen, Va. and Sedalia, Mo. The order said plaintiffs provided evidence that could have been presented to a jury to show Tyson was concealing unauthorized employees at its Corydon, Ind., facility but failed to show that Tyson's violations "caused their injuries." ...

[Washington, D.C. attorney Tom] Green and other Tyson attorneys had argued that if the company hired illegal workers, it was because of the underground market for phony immigration papers and the government's flawed system of screening immigrants.

Earlier here and here.