Posted on 12/07/2007 2:59:21 PM PST by Andy'smom
DES MOINES, Iowa - Republican Mitt Romney denies any responsibility for hiring illegal immigrants as workers at his home, insisting it was the fault of contractors and calling for tighter federal guidelines to verify the status of workers.
Asked by a reporter today if he shouldn’t go the "extra mile" because of his business background and his strong advocacy of clamping down on illegal immigration in his presidential bid, the former Massachusetts governor shot back: "And what’s the extra mile? So for instance, if I go to a restaurant, do I make sure all the waiters there are all legal?"
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...
NO...but both of the homeowners claim to be unaware they were there, and I only believe one of them...
This guy is an idiot. There is a huge difference between an illegal working at a restaurant than one working for a company at your own house, and yes I do think you have a responsibility to know this beforehand. When you hire a landscape service ask the owner BEFORE hiring them if all their employees are LEGAL.
I’m no Romney fan, but I would think he might be a little too busy campaigning for President to check on the gardener’s papers.
I guess I’m guilty too because I think my HOA dues were used to hire a company that may employee illegals. I don’t go to the meetings, so what do I know? I might have payed for a meal at a restaurant that may have illegals in the kitchen. I don’t have time to check everyone’s paperwork everywhere I go.
There are so many illegals in the country now, there is almost no way to avoid accidentally paying a company that employs them. We need to worry about the big problems of building the fence and eliminating public benefits to illegals. ICE needs to get off their butts and enforce our laws since that’s what we pay them for. The average citizen hasn’t got the time to deal with it all by themselves.
He’s way too defensive about this. This is a trivial issue, and all he’d need to say is that he hired a contractor to do a job and naturally presumed that the contractor’s hiring decisions were on the up & up. Getting testy and ruffled about it just generates more headlines, and it seems that this has gotten way more mileage than its merits deserve.
Put your hand on a Bible, please, and swear to The Almighty that you have never ever had any illegal immigrant ever serve or cook your food, or wash your car, or stitch your clothes, or process any steak or burger you've ever consumed.
Do you -- before you buy a piece of meat at the local grocery store -- call the butcher company (hey, the name and phone number is right there on the package) and ask for documentation proving they don't have any illegals?
Do you, prior to buying an automobile, write to the manufacturer demanding documents proving they don't have one single illegal immigrant under their employ??
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(crickets chirping........)
It’s not the same thing. Mitt Romney lives in Belmont, he hired landscapers from Chelsea and painters from Peabody. You pretty much have to go out of your way to hire these contractors.
Maybe it’s not up to the average homeowner to check the citizenship of the guys who mow his lawn. But if you’re running for president, it’s peculiarly stupid or arrogant not to do so.
So, how do you do that? Do you take the contractor's word that his people are all legal? Do you ask to inspect the I9s and if all the do-not-match letters have been resolved? Or do you just fire him if any of his people speak with an accent (that is, assuming you're home to hear them talk)?
Mitt has a better idea. Make the government do it! For real, this time!
Meanwhile, you can run out to Walmart and buy one of these:
“Put your hand on a Bible, please, and swear to The Almighty that you have never ever had any illegal immigrant ever serve or cook your food, or wash your car, or stitch your clothes, or process any steak or burger you’ve ever consumed.”
Don’t let yourself spin out of control there. The question at hand is about having a permanent relationship with illegals at your home when you are republican governor, and continuing as you run for the presidency, it isn’t about whipping through a drive through to grab a burger.
I am not aware of any threads that are about never having any human contact with an illegal, or contact with someone else that might, and that sure isn’t what this one is about.
“I would think he might be a little too busy campaigning for President to check on the gardener’s papers.”
Remember Ross Perot? Well that is about the time that Romney hired these people.
Want to take on this post?
Romney hired an American contractor company that hired an illegal (unbeknownst to Romney) --- just as you have probably bought food (contracted with) at an American restaurant that likely hired an illegal (unbeknownst to you).
Do you really hate Romney that much that you refuse to see the facts of the situation?
In committee, Thompson voted against a system that would have all Americans to get the federal government’s OK before we could work.
Hillary ‘toon’s mandatory medical insurance proposal illustrated the dangers of this — she said that one of the sanctions for not getting insurance might be denial of a citizen’s right to work. That way lies tyranny.
Thompson made the right call. A better system is one in which only immigrants need to get the government’s OK.
“that hired an illegal”
Many illegals worked at the Romney home during the eleven years, one individual for eight years, others worked there for years, it spread as Romney started recommending them to other family members.
Romney refused to run them off even after the media reported it in Dec. of 06, even after another candidate revealed it to the world in a debate, where Romney denied it. Finally after another media revelation that Mitt was still employing them, he finally cut them loose.
You really need to learn the difference between bumping into things as you are out in the world versus who you hire permanently to work at your home.
I don’t know about you, but I make it a point of knowing the people who work for me, not to check up on them, but because it’s the human thing to do.
Hell, I remember when I was about five years old, my parents had an Italian gardener who used to come to our house, and I went out, talked to him, and persuaded him to exchange sandwiches with me. I got good Italian bread, and he got sliced sawdust, which was all you could buy in the market in those days. I was too young to realize how generous he was, but I sure liked that sandwich!
No, I'm putting forth the suggestion that someone should as the street newspaper vendors if they are legal. If you have never been to Houston, let me explain. We have newspaper vendors who work many street corners and run in between the cars selling newspapers. They have no established business location, they have no uniform or company identification.
With the high amount of illegals in Houston, I would suggest someone should determine how many of the street newspaper vendors are legal.
Also I do not have illegals continuously working on my property.
1. Not his fault that two separate groups of illegal
immigrants worked at two separate homes he lived in.
Not his fault either time.
2. Not his fault a fake Fred Thompson website appeared,
connected to his campaign.
3. Not his fault that his campaign workers traveling with
Mitt pretended to be police, complete with fake badges to
bully people. Wasn’t until he was outed in the second state
that he stopped it (we think). Took two times, but neither
was his fault.
4. Not Mitt’s fault that his health plan offers $50 abortions
5. Never his fault. Never. Quit trying to say anything is
Mitt’s fault. You’re picking on Mitt because of his faith.
The contractor could get sued showing you their papers.
Times have changed. These days, you can get the good bread in the market, but hiring contractors to do landscaping has largely changed to the supermarket model. The contractor will send out an ever-changing crew, most Spanish-speaking, some legal, some not. And there's no reliable way to screen them, short of the sort of due diligence you would do if you were buying the contractor's business (which would include checking the I9s and requiring him to verify the SSNs with the Social Security Administration and resolve any no-matches).
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