As for the company, spokeswoman Perla Rodriguez would say only that Mi Pueblo signed up for E-Verify at the recommendation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
"We don't want to create fear in our community, and we recognize this is a difficult move to understand," Rodriguez said. "It was a decision that weighed very heavily on us."
The controversy has highlighted long-standing questions about how Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an arm of the Homeland Department, decides which businesses to audit — and how aggressively agents are pushing the computerized E-Verify program behind the scenes.