Posted on 09/14/2003 2:09:37 AM PDT by ambrose
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September 14, 2003 Last modified September 14, 2003 - 1:33 am |
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger has denounced illegal immigration in his bid to become California's next governor, but the Austrian native may have stretched the bounds of United States law to gain his own ticket to America in the 1960s.
As a 21-year-old bodybuilder, Schwarzenegger came to the United States in 1968 on a B-1 visa, which allows visiting athletes to compete and train but bars them from drawing a salary from an American company.
But in his 1977 autobiography, Schwarzenegger said he reached a deal with a legendary figure in the bodybuilding industry "to pay me a weekly salary in exchange for my information and being able to use photographs of me in his magazine."
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That arrangement, said a half dozen immigration attorneys across the nation, appears to have violated the terms of his visa.
"It allows you to come in to conduct business, but to be gainfully employed you need a visa that allows you to be gainfully employed in the United States," said New York-based immigration attorney Steven S. Mukamal. "It would seem that Mr. Schwarzenegger violated his own status."
Schwarzenegger told campaign aides last week that he does not recall earning a salary during his first year in America, even though he wrote about it in his autobiography and the arrangement has been reported in many accounts over the decades.
Aides to the actor vigorously defend the candidate's immigration record, saying that the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service would not have extended his B-1 visa after six months, then given him a temporary working visa if he had done anything wrong.
"The INS knew full well what he was doing here and had no problem with it," said Thomas Hiltachk, Schwarzenegger's attorney. "Had there been any violation of his existing visa, he would not have been granted a new visa."
Schwarzenegger declined be interviewed or release immigration records that detail his employment history in the United States.
Immigration has emerged as a central issue in the race to replace Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, who is facing an historic Oct. 7 recall election.
Although many immigrants break the terms of their visa by working in the United States, Schwarzenegger has repeatedly stressed that he followed the rules and insists that other immigrants must do the same.
The Hollywood star, who calls himself the "true immigrant" in the race, has used his own rags-to-riches tale to explain his support for Proposition 187, a controversial 1994 ballot measure that sought to bar illegal immigrants from receiving educational and social services. And, as governor, he has vowed to fight a law Davis signed earlier this month that allows illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses.
"People like myself waited for 15 years after I came to this country - legally - to get citizenship," Schwarzenegger said recently on talk radio. "So I find it unfair to push the whole thing of undocumented immigrants and to say, 'Well, you know they should just get their citizenship because they're coming in.'"
But Schwarzenegger's own tale is not so clear-cut.
The B-1 visa that Schwarzenegger received allows a select group of visitors to come into the United States for brief periods of business. It allows athletes to take part in competitions, ministers to lead evangelical tours, engineers to install computer systems and musicians to record albums. Under the terms of the visa, "a nonimmigrant in B-1 status may not receive a salary from a U.S. source for services rendered in connection with his or her activities in the United States." The rules do allow immigrants to receive "actual reasonable expenses," such as money for food and hotel rooms.
Even before he arrived in America, Schwarzenegger has said, he struck a deal to work for bodybuilding magnate Joe Weider while he had a B-1 visa so he could train in California. Weider persuaded Schwarzenegger to train at the legendary Gold's Gym in Venice after the young bodybuilder lost a major competition in Florida.
"I worked out an agreement with Joe Weider to spend one year in America," Schwarzenegger wrote in his 1977 autobiography. "My part of the agreement was to make available to Weider information about how I trained. He agreed to provide an apartment, a car and to pay me a weekly salary in exchange for my information and being able to use photographs of me in his magazine."
In interviews over the years with major American newspapers, Weider has said he paid the young bodybuilder between $100 and $200 a week to write brochures and columns for his bodybulding magazines.
Last month in an interview with the San Jose Mercury News, Weider said he paid Schwarzenegger $200 a week, a generous sum in 1968 when the average weekly wage was about $114.
"I paid him right away," Weider said. "How do you think he was going to live?"
Schwarzenegger spokesman Sean Walsh also told the Mercury News last month that the young bodybuilder was paid a weekly salary, but Walsh said that it was only $65 a week.
When the San Jose Mercury News questioned last week whether taking a salary violated the terms of Schwarzenegger's visa, the campaign argued that Schwarzenegger did not receive a salary.
Hiltachk said that, despite what Schwarzenegger wrote in his autobiography, the actor does not think he was paid in exchange for work while he had a B-1 visa.
"His recollection was foggy, but he said he didn't believe he received a salary or was working for Joe," Hiltachk said.
If Weider did pay Schwarzenegger a salary to write for his magazines in 1968 and 1969, that would have been a violation of his immigration status, six immigration attorneys said last week.
"If I had presented that story to the INS, I doubt they would have OK'd it," said San Francisco attorney Don Ungar, who has been practicing immigration law for 42 years. "If he's being paid to provide information that's being used by Joe Weider, that strikes me as employment."
Hiltachk said the candidate's 1973 application to become a permanent resident outlines his relationship with Weider, demonstrating that the INS knew of the business arrangement and found no fault with it. But Hiltachk declined to release any details, citing attorney-client privilege.
The Mercury News filed a public records request for access to Schwarzenegger's immigration file, but the federal government - citing confidentiality - released just one of the 83 pages - a newspaper article from 1974. The INS, now called the Bureau of Immigration and Citizenship Services, also declined to discuss Schwarzenegger's immigration record.
In November 1969, after more than a year in the United States, Schwarzenegger received an H-2 visa, which allowed him to work in this country. He became a permanent resident in 1974 and a citizen in 1983.
Copyright © 2003 Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
And placing Bustamante closer to the governor's parking space.
Keep in mind that Arnold is opposed to illegal immigration, which will impact the business of the "immigration lawyers", so they are not disinterested parties.
As I said on other threads, it doesn't look like Arnold violated the law. He performed no work for Weider. He simply allowed Weider to use Arnold's image and allowed Weider's reporter access to observe Arnold's training methods. He entered the US as an athlete, and does not seem to have done anything other than athletic training during the term of the visa. Per the article
The B-1 visa that Schwarzenegger received allows a select group of visitors to come into the United States for brief periods of business. It allows athletes to take part in competitions, ministers to lead evangelical tours, engineers to install computer systems and musicians to record albums. Under the terms of the visa, "a nonimmigrant in B-1 status may not receive a salary from a U.S. source for services rendered in connection with his or her activities in the United States." The rules do allow immigrants to receive "actual reasonable expenses," such as money for food and hotel rooms.It could be argued that what Arnold called a "salary" was in fact a stipend to cover his living expenses while in the US
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