Brand-Name Companies, No-Name Workers: How ‘Ghosts’ at Contractors Keep ICE at Bay

Seven days a week, Martha Lopez arrived before dawn at the Target in Brentwood, Tennessee, to make sure the store in the Nashville suburb gleamed for shoppers. For about two years, Lopez said, she emptied trash, scrubbed the toilets and polished the white floors to maintain the “wet look” the retailer demands. The pay wasn’t bad, but payday gave her pause.

Twice a month, her wages—$11.50 an hour—were loaded onto an electronic pay card that she’d been given. The card was stamped with somebody else’s name: “M Hernandez Cleme.”