At least you won't have to worry about your doughnuts

[Sierra]

http://www.azcentral.com/business/ar...-dunkin15.html

The nation's largest doughnut chain is requiring all franchise owners to perform background checks to make sure job applicants are not illegal immigrants.

And the company is moving to fire those owners they accuse of accepting fake IDs commonly used by illegal immigrants to find work.

In April, Dunkin' Donuts filed a lawsuit in federal court asking a judge to terminate the franchise agreement it has with two stores in New Jersey, saying the owners knowingly accepted false documents, used false Social Security numbers and paid employees in cash. The company has filed similar lawsuits seeking to sever ties with franchises in Boston, Atlanta and Florida, where it is has accused three franchises of hiring illegal immigrants.

In early May Dunkin' Donuts announced a major expansion in metropolitan Phoenix with plans to increase its number of stores from 15 to about 150 during the next few years.

The April lawsuits come a year after Dunkin' Donuts became the best-known corporation to enroll in Basic Pilot, a voluntary U.S. Department of Homeland Security program that allows employers to perform electronic document checks to verify that applicants are eligible to work. Under the Senate bill, the electronic verification program would become mandatory.

Dunkin' Donuts officials declined to comment on the lawsuits. In a written statement, company officials said that requiring its 5,100 stores to enroll in Basic Pilot "is the right thing to do for our franchisees, for Dunkin' Brands, and most of all, for our franchisees' workers."

Arvind Patel, part-owner of Anuja Inc., the company that operates the two New Jersey franchises Dunkin' Donuts seeks to terminate - one in Somerset, the other in Middlesex - declined to comment.

Meanwhile, the approach by Massachusetts-based Dunkin' Donuts is drawing praise from groups supporting tougher immigration enforcement.

"It's both good citizenship and good business," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank. Krikorian praised the doughnut chain for thinking ahead by putting the Basic Pilot program in place while it is still voluntary, a move that will keep it from having to scramble to comply if Congress makes the program compulsory.

"This is really short-term thinking on the part of the businesses that resist the verification system," Krikorian said. "They ought to be working eagerly and closely with Homeland Security to ... implement this rather than fight it."

In the New Jersey lawsuit, Dunkin' Donuts charges that the owners of Anuja Inc. broke a clause in their franchise contract requiring it to "obey all laws."

The suit alleges Anuja owners broke the law by using false Social Security numbers for employees and paying them in cash. It also charges the company knowingly accepted false identification documents in the hiring process and repeatedly failed to maintain accurate financial records, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Newark.

Cases in which companies sue their own franchise owners for hiring illegals are virtually unheard of, immigration and legal experts said.

A report by the Pew Hispanic Center, a research organization, estimates there are 11.2 million illegal immigrants in the United States, of whom 7 million are working. Studies show the majority use fake Social Security cards and other documents to apply for work.

Under the Basic Pilot program, employers type a job applicant's name, Social Security number and other information into a Web-based program and receive an almost instant response telling them whether the worker is eligible for work. If a discrepancy arises, the worker has two weeks to iron out the problem before the employer can fire him or her.

Nationwide, only about 1 percent of all U.S. companies currently use the voluntary electronic verification system, and its use is even rarer in the food service industry, where employers often rely heavily on an immigrant work force.

Making the system mandatory is a cornerstones of the immigration reform bill that supporters, including President Bush, hope to jump-start in the U.S. Senate. The bill also would create a guest worker program, legalize millions of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. and replace the immigration system based mainly on family ties with one that puts more emphasis on job skills and education.

Unlike many of the provisions, the electronic verification requirement has broad support in both parties and the Bush administration.

A year ago, Bush paid a surprise visit to an Alexandria, Va., Dunkin' Donuts to highlight the program and praise the company for making enrollment in Basic Pilot mandatory for its more than 5,000 stores nationwide.