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American Morning
Wal-Mart Mounting Defense About Allegations of Hiring Illegal Immigrants
Aired December 19, 2003 - 07:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Wal-Mart is mounting a defense about allegations of its hiring illegal immigrants.
Andy Serwer minding your business this morning.
This is a story that we've been following for a while now.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: It is, Soledad, and it's a remarkable development in this story. Today in the "Wall Street Journal," a story outlining what Wal-Mart says about this illegal alien situation it seems to have gotten itself involved in. You may remember back on October 23, federal agents raided Wal-Marts across the country and headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, saying the company was contracting and using illegal aliens for cleanup crews.
Well, today the "Wall Street Journal" is reporting that, in fact, the company says it was cooperating with the government and essentially the government turned on the company and decided to conduct these raids, even though the company was cooperating and helping the government investigate the subcontractor who had hired these illegal aliens.
So, really a startling development. The government declined to comment and this story is going to continue.
O'BRIEN: It raises a weird question, though, which is, after all the negative media they got immediately afterwards, why not just come forward and say you know what, we've been participating in a sting operation?
SERWER: Right. That...
O'BRIEN: I mean why now (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?
SERWER: That I have a hard time understanding, as well, because it's almost two months now since the initial raids.
A couple of things. Wal-Mart is such a big company, maybe one arm didn't know what the other arm was doing. This reporter...
O'BRIEN: Two months?
SERWER: Yes. Or this reporter apparently did a very good job of tracking through court records and documents, though. So interesting stuff. Wal-Mart also getting into the online business, I want to mention that quickly, doing that yesterday, rolling out their online service to download music, competing with Apple and iTunes. And guess what? Their prices are lower than Apple's are you know. So interesting stuff there. And we're going to have to watch that one, as well.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Illegal Immigrants>
Aired December 19, 2003 - 07:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Wal-Mart is mounting a defense about allegations of its hiring illegal immigrants.
Andy Serwer minding your business this morning.
This is a story that we've been following for a while now.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: It is, Soledad, and it's a remarkable development in this story. Today in the "Wall Street Journal," a story outlining what Wal-Mart says about this illegal alien situation it seems to have gotten itself involved in. You may remember back on October 23, federal agents raided Wal-Marts across the country and headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, saying the company was contracting and using illegal aliens for cleanup crews.
Well, today the "Wall Street Journal" is reporting that, in fact, the company says it was cooperating with the government and essentially the government turned on the company and decided to conduct these raids, even though the company was cooperating and helping the government investigate the subcontractor who had hired these illegal aliens.
So, really a startling development. The government declined to comment and this story is going to continue.
O'BRIEN: It raises a weird question, though, which is, after all the negative media they got immediately afterwards, why not just come forward and say you know what, we've been participating in a sting operation?
SERWER: Right. That...
O'BRIEN: I mean why now (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?
SERWER: That I have a hard time understanding, as well, because it's almost two months now since the initial raids.
A couple of things. Wal-Mart is such a big company, maybe one arm didn't know what the other arm was doing. This reporter...
O'BRIEN: Two months?
SERWER: Yes. Or this reporter apparently did a very good job of tracking through court records and documents, though. So interesting stuff. Wal-Mart also getting into the online business, I want to mention that quickly, doing that yesterday, rolling out their online service to download music, competing with Apple and iTunes. And guess what? Their prices are lower than Apple's are you know. So interesting stuff there. And we're going to have to watch that one, as well.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Illegal Immigrants>
