CA: State GOP official may have violated visa law (Canadian, hired as FT deputy political director)

SFGate.com ^ | 2/23/08 | Carla Marinucci and Lance Williams

[NormsRevenge]

A Canadian hired by the California Republican Party to do political work on a coveted H-1B visa appears to be in violation of immigration law because he is also earning money from another employer, federal officials said this week.

Christopher Matthews, a Canadian citizen, was hired in 2007 as full-time deputy political director, with responsibility for handling campaign operations and information technology for the country's largest state Republican Party operation, U.S. Department of Labor records show. He currently works for the state GOP as a political coordinator, said Hector Barajas, spokesman for the California Republican Party.

The state Republican Party applied for an H-1B visa on behalf of Matthews to fill the job of "political consultant" and was granted a visa labor certification in March 2007.

The Canadian's three-year H-1B visa is valid until Sept. 9, 2010, government records show.

But Federal Election Commission records show that Matthews has earned nearly $6,000 in 2008 working for a different employer - the San Diego Republican Party.

Jonathan Buettner, spokesman for the San Diego GOP, said Matthews is a valued database expert employed there under a "TN" visa - a renewable one-year special visa for Canadian and Mexican professional workers created under the North American Free Trade Agreement. ..

--snip--

But an official from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said immigration law is clear on the matter.

"Citizens of other countries who work here on non-immigrant visas can only use one kind at a time - and can only work for the employer who petitioned them," said Sharon Rummery, the San Francisco-based public information officer for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Violations of the terms of an H-1B visa, she said, can result in revocation of the visa.

[NormsRevenge]

I didn’t realize there was such a shortages of Americans to work for political parties.

Australians, Canadians, what next .. (..or dare I ask?)

[Brad from Tennessee]

[Violations of the terms of an H-1B visa, she said, can result in revocation of the visa.]

They can just pay him under the table like they do the yard man and the maid.

[NormsRevenge]

Matthews was hired in California Republican Party circles by Michael Kamburowski, an Australian citizen who in 2007 was named the state GOP’s chief operations officer.

Kamburowski resigned the $130,000-a-year post after The Chronicle reported he had sued federal officials who jailed him in 2004 for alleged visa violations and attempted to deport him.

[americanophile]

Another job Americans just won’t do.

[backtothestreets]

Easy to imagine why the CAGOP has difficulties with California voters when they fill a position, not from another state, which would be bad enough, but from another country. Not one Californian was qualified? That’s very hard to believe.