[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5633]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       A WIN FOR AMERICAN WORKERS

  (Mr. SMITH of Texas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, American workers have just won a 
great and historic victory. Employees of Mohawk Industries will share 
the $18 million that the company agreed to pay to settle a lawsuit 
accusing it of hiring illegal immigrants in order to hold down wages.
  The settlement comes on the heels of the Obama administration's 
decision to largely abandon enforcement of our immigration laws at 
America's workplaces. This legal victory gives a valuable tool to other 
workers who suffer at the hands of employers who want to keep wages low 
by hiring illegal immigrants.
  If the Obama administration won't act to protect American workers, 
American workers now have the power to protect themselves by filing 
lawsuits against employers who hire cheap and illegal labor.
  Mr. Speaker, if employers continue to break immigration laws, may 
there be many more such lawsuits.

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