Chipotle: Illegal Worker Firings Mar Chipotle Amid Immigration Probe Into Labor Practices

Chipotle: Burrito chain Chipotle fired hundreds of illegal workers in Minnesota the past few weeks. Chipotle came under intense scrutiny over allegations that it hired undocumented laborers.
Chipotle: Illegal Worker Firings Mar Chipotle Amid Immigration Probe Into Labor Practices
Chipotle : Pedestrians pass a Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant in the trendy Bucktown neighborhood January 26, 2006 in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
2/8/2011
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/56681091.jpg" alt="Chipotle : Pedestrians pass a Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant in the trendy Bucktown neighborhood January 26, 2006 in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)" title="Chipotle : Pedestrians pass a Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant in the trendy Bucktown neighborhood January 26, 2006 in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1808614"/></a>
Chipotle : Pedestrians pass a Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant in the trendy Bucktown neighborhood January 26, 2006 in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Burrito chain Chipotle Mexican Gill Inc. fired hundreds of illegal workers in Minnesota the past few weeks after the company came under intense scrutiny over allegations that it hired undocumented laborers, media reports on Tuesday said.

During an immigration audit by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Chipotle let go of hundreds of its employees from many of its 50 Minnesota stores, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“We are not disclosing a number of people displaced by this,” Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold told CNN. “We did lose some restaurant employees in Minnesota following a document review by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”

The ICE investigation turned up “suspect documents” that called into question the immigration status of hundreds of Chipotle’s Minnesota employees, the Journal noted.

On Tuesday, the company announced that the immigration audit would be spreading to dozens of its restaurants in Virginia and Washington, DC, according to the Associated Press.

The increasing scrutiny over its hiring practices has forced the Mexican restaurant chain to expand its use of E-verify, a government immigration database, Fox News Latino reported.

“Stemming from Minnesota, we’re in communication with ICE to expand our use of E-verify,” Arnold told the news site, noting that Chipotle was currently only using them in states that required it, such as Arizona, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

Shares of Denver-based Chipotle (NYSE: CMG) dipped slightly in Tuesday trading by 29 cents (0.12 percent) to close at $247.26.