Not so fast.
A group of clergy has jumped to the conclusion that Taco Bell is a big, bad company for firing more than two dozen Hispanic employees in Madison and Sun Prairie.
The firings followed discrepancies with the workers' Social Security numbers.
"It troubles us on a moral level if hard-working people are being treated with such a lack of respect and dignity," states a June 20 letter from 16 local clergy to Greg Creed, president of Taco Bell Corp.
The key word here is "if."
Some facts are in dispute, and many others are unknown to the public.
Moreover, federal rules on immigration and employment can be murky and at times seemingly contradictory.
A business can be punished for employing illegal immigrants. A business also can be punished for firing workers -- no matter their legal status in this country -- if proper procedures aren't followed.
Another possibility to consider: Taco Bell may have been sorry to see these workers go if they were doing a good job.
It was the federal government, after all, that raised questions about the workers in the first place. The Social Security administration notified Taco Bell that the Social Security numbers of some employees didn't match government records.
Employers are required to tell workers about the letters and to correct records as needed. So the company says it gave the employees several months to clear up the discrepancies.
The clergy who are protesting Taco Bell say the workers insist they were fired on the spot. About 19 of the workers have filed complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission in Milwaukee.
The unfortunate episode highlights Washington's failure to reform immigration policy so that it's workable and easy to follow.
What the controversy shouldn't incite -- so far, at least -- is rage against a restaurant chain that may have simply been trying to follow the law.