"Employers: The New Racketeers?," Human Resource Executive Online

This article explains how employees are using the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute (RICO) in order to charge employers with recruiting illegal workers to drive down wages, even if a third party vendor such as an employment agency is at fault. Littler's Don Benson offers insight, "Employers need clear and practical standards by which they can safely measure their immigrant labor policies," he says. "It is easier to be a target than one might think."

Any company with a recent, rapid increase in new, low-skilled workers in the past five years, a history of immigration inspections by federal agencies or a size so large that its wage rates affect the rates of other area employers, could be liable under RICO, says Benson.