McCalla Corporation, McDonald's Franchisee, Fined $400,000 For Hiring Undocumented Worker

A Kansas fast food franchisee is facing a major fine for knowingly hiring an undocumented worker.

McCalla Corporation, a franchisee that owns six McDonald’s around Wichita, Kansas, knowingly hired a worker who presented false documents as proof they were eligible to work, the Wichita Eagle reports. The company agreed to pay a $400,000 fine for employing the worker who worked as a supervisor from May 2009 until September 2012.

The company is just one of many fast food operators that’s gotten caught up in the crosshairs of the immigration debate. Chipotle announced in May that it’s facing a criminal investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission over its hiring practices. The probe came a few months after the burrito chain fired hundreds of Minnesota workers once immigration officials found that some of the chain’s workers in the state turned in fraudulent-looking I-9 forms to prove their work eligibility, according to the New York Daily News.

But it’s not only fast food chains that are feeling the heat. The Department of Homeland Security asked hundreds of companies to turn over their hiring records for inspection earlier this year, according to the Wall Street Journal. Since President Obama took office, his administration has audited more than 7,000 businesses suspected of hiring undocumented workers. All together, the president has imposed roughly $100 million in fines.

Businesses have been negatively affected by legislation targeting undocumented workers too. In Alabama, a law passed last June that requires police to detain people they believe are undocumented immigrants has cost the state’s economy up to $10.8 billion, as up to 80,000 jobs were left vacant when undocumented immigrants left to escape the crackdown, according to a recent study by a University of Alabama researcher.