May 31, 2017      2:07 PM
In lawsuit against illegal immigrant, McNutt's company retreated from claims it did not employ illegal immigrants
After the legal status of a former worker took center stage in Thomas McNutt’s challenge to Rep. Byron Cook in ‘16, Collin Street Bakery sued that undocumented immigrant but later quietly dropped the suit after retreating from claims that all their employees were authorized to work in the United States
As
the campaign of Corsicana businessman Thomas
McNutt for the Texas House begins in earnest tonight with a fundraiser at the
home of Dallas megadonor Doug Deason, the Vice President of the Collin Street Bakery is
once again pitching voters on the idea that he will take a hardline stance on
illegal immigration in the mold of President Donald Trump.
Tensions
over the issue are arguably as high as they have been in years. Following the
passage of Senate Bill 4, Rep. Matt
Rinaldi – who belongs to the same anti-establishment faction of the GOP as
McNutt – this week drew international attention to the House floor after saying he called Immigration and Customs
Enforcement to round up anti-SB4 protesters.
“People
are tired of illegal immigrants receiving countless government handouts while
we American citizens are stuck paying the bill,” McNutt said in his campaign
announcement earlier this year.
But
after McNutt’s first challenge of State Affairs Chairman Byron Cook was unsuccessful in 2016, largely because of revelations
his company has employed undocumented people, legal actions stemming from that
campaign are raising new questions about the Collin Street Bakery’s hiring
practices.
Jose Manuel Santoyo, one of the young
undocumented immigrants who used to work for McNutt and spoke out against him in
2016
in the Dallas Morning News and elsewhere, was sued this year by Collin
Street Bakery over claims of defamation, Quorum Report has learned.
We
have also learned that the suit was quietly dropped after McNutt’s company
fully retreated from the argument that all its employees’ legal status were
verified.
By Scott Braddock and James Russell
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