Secretary of Homeland Security paid undocumented workers

Ianus · 12-11-2008, 04:25 AM

Lol,This reminds me of the Romney fiasco.They can talk about enforcing the law all they want but you know this is definitely going to be a PR problem for the Secretary since he always touted about,"Enforcing the law",yet he broke it.

Quote:

Reporting from Washington -- Every few weeks for nearly four years, the Secret Service screened the IDs of employees of a Maryland cleaning company before they entered the house of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the nation's top immigration official.

The company's owner says the workers sailed through the checks -- although some of them were actually illegal immigrants.

Now, owner James Reid finds himself in a predicament that he considers especially confounding. In October, he was fined $22,880 after Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators said he failed to check identification and work documents and to fill out required I-9 verification forms for employees, five of whom he said were part of crews sent to Chertoff's home and whom ICE told him to fire because they were undocumented.

"Our people need to know," Reid said. "Our Homeland Security can't police their own home. How can they police our borders?"

Reid admits he made mistakes but called the fine so excessive that it might put him out of business. Several of his workers moved after ICE agents showed up at their homes, he said.

Raising a common objection among employers as ICE cracks down on illegal hirings across the nation, Reid said it is unreasonable to expect businesspeople to distinguish between fake and real driver's licenses and Social Security cards.

Immigration laws are unevenly enforced, he added, allowing big companies to stay in business while crushing small-business owners and workers. He said the rules punish "scapegoats" like him while inviting people at every level -- customers, subcontractors and contractors -- to look the other way while benefiting economically from cheaper labor.

"No one wants to put the blame on the head; they'd rather put the blame on the business owner," said Reid, who owns Consistent Cleaning Services. "Damned if I should be fined for employees that I took over to their house."

Chertoff declined to comment.

"We're very constrained in what we can say about anybody who has any kind of issue with the department," he said.

The Secret Service uses workers' ID information to conduct security checks, not immigration checks, much as most police departments do when they pull over people for traffic stops.

Eric Zahren, a spokesman for the service, which is part of Chertoff's department, declined to discuss specific screening practices. But he said agents protecting the secretary "would have run the appropriate checks, screened and escorted people as appropriate in order to maintain the security of the residence and our protectee's security."

Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said that in this type of investigation, ICE focuses on the employers, not where employees are dispatched. He said that contractors have the responsibility of ensuring that their workers are legal, and that the Chertoffs were assured by Reid that workers sent to their home were legal. Upon learning that Reid might have hired illegal immigrants, the Chertoffs stopped using his firm, and the secretary recused himself from the department's subsequent enforcement actions, Knocke said.

"This matter illustrates the need for comprehensive immigration reform and the importance of effective tools for companies to determine the lawful status of their workforce," he said.

VaeVictis · 12-11-2008, 05:28 AM

Well you know Chertoff broke the law by hiring this company that uses undocumented workers. Never mind the fact that he probably had no idea what kind of workers the contractor his department hired to clean the offices used, because, you know, illegal is illegal. Now let's blame the the cleaning guys!!!!!

sunny_thedreamer · 12-11-2008, 12:05 PM

You see this anti immigrant politician are like bully. They would never pick on someone of their own size. Instead someone who is weak and has some kind of physical difficulty, just to make themselves feel better. I bet people would blame the worker, not the owner of company or god forbid person who took advantage of their cheap labor (in this case chartoff).
I love the irony in this case

.

Jay Stone · 12:59 PM

Hey let's face it, I would love to take this opportunity to point and laugh at him as much as the next guy. But in all fairness, Secret Service was checking these ID's (Driver's Licenses) at the door for Identification only, just to know who and when, not Immigration Status. Now, these agents I supposose are assuming that the company who hired the employees did it's job in checking the eligibility of its employees to work in the country. Secret Service is Secret Service, not Immigration. So the fact that this happened to the head of Homeland, who contracted the company as a whole, and not on a worker to worker basis, Ironic? yes. Malicious or criminal? I don't think so. Unless he knew that the workers were Illegal, which I doubt very much.

Quote:

The Secret Service uses workers' ID information to conduct security checks, not immigration checks, much like most police departments do when they pull over people for traffic stops.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...l?hpid=topnews

In my opinion, the criminalization of this man an over reaction. However, It really is a shot in the face to him and to everyone else, that this system must be fixed, If it got past him, it can get past anybody. There's no use in punishing employers who have no idea the same way he's getting the shit end of this stick.

lu001 · 12-11-2008, 08:11 PM

Oh irony, how beautiful you are!

I love how they blame the cleaning guy and Chertoff is unavailable for comments. Bookmarked.

DaLastHope · 12-11-2008, 09:03 PM

irony,its more than that.

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Secretary of Homeland Security paid undocumented workers