I'm proud to be [u]n [-]American, God bless the USA!

Mil Apodos brings me a story from my hometown that suggests (gasp!) Wal-Mart execs might actually know that their policies enrich the corporation at the expense of American workers. High-paid investigative journalists everywhere will undoubtedly be reaching for the smelling salts and loosening their bodices.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Senior Wal-Mart executives knew cleaning contractors were hiring illegal immigrants, many of whom were housed in crowded conditions and sometimes slept in the backs of stores, according to a federal agency's affidavit.

The affidavit, unsealed last week, was part of an investigation of Wal-Mart by federal immigration officials that led to the 2003 raid on 60 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states, and the arrests of 245 illegal workers. The retailer agreed to pay $11 million in March to settle the case, but says top executives neither encouraged nor knew of the practice.

The affidavit was filed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service to secure search warrants for a 2003 raid on Wal-Mart Stores Inc. headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. The INS has since been folded into the bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The document was unsealed Nov. 2 by a U.S. district judge in Fayetteville, Ark. at the request of a New York attorney representing more than 200 former employees in a civil lawsuit against the world's largest retailer.

In the affidavit, investigators said testimony and taped conversations from 2003 showed two executives at Wal-Mart headquarters knew that contractors and subcontractors cleaning its stores in several states employed illegal immigrants from eastern Europe and elsewhere.

Keep in mind that the $11 million fine Wal-Mart paid is peanuts for the nation's largest retailer and employer. For Wal-Mart's owners, it's the equivalent of the average American family being fined about $10 of their annual income.

And allow me to promote Robert Greenwald's latest endeavor, and a clip called Confessions of a Wal-Mart Hitman.