Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's house cleaned by illegals

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Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's house cleaned by illegals
By: on: 12.12.2008 [09:51] (105 reads)
   
Mr. Chertoff has once again shown us that DHS priority is about killing the enemies of Israel and has NOTHING to do with the security of the host country.

Posted December 11, 2008 5:24 PM
The Swamp

by Frank James

Incoming Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano may want to have her department's immigration agents check the immigration status of any cleaning-company workers she may hire to keep up her future Washington-area home.

That's one possible lesson from the revelation that a cleaning contractor used illegal workers to clean Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's home.

And that was despite Secret Service agents checking the workers' identification documents.

As the Washington Post reported:

Every few weeks for nearly four years, the Secret Service screened the IDs of employees for 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 turned out to be illegal immigrants.

As the WaPo further reported, the Secret Service, like most police agencies, ran criminal but not immigration checks on the workers, which explained how they were able to work at Chertoff's home for so long.

Evidently Chertoff asked if the workers were legal immigrants and was assured they were. Obviously that wasn't enough however.

I recall once talking with Rep. James Sensenbrenner, the Wisconsin Republican who was a leading opponent of comprehensive immigration reform legislation two years ago. He told me he actually asked to see the immigration documents of workers at his house. It seemed a little excessive at the time but in light of what happened to Chertoff, it seems a lot more justified.

In any event, after the immigration status of the cleaning company's workers was investigated, the owner in the Chertoff case was fined $22,880 for having hired undocumented workers.

That apparently ticked him off. It seems he decided to try for revenge on the WaPo's front page. Owner James D. Reid is quoted as saying:

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

In otherwords, Reid seems to be taking Chertoff to task for trusting him. Seems like an odd message for a businessman to send.


http://blogs.kansascity.com/crime_scene ... -142438398

Thursday, December 11, 2008
Cleaning company used illegal workers to clean Chertoff's home

From the Washington Post:

The nation's top immigration official had trouble policing his own home, even with the help of Secret Service.

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

The fine for the cleaning service business owner put him out of business. He said it's unreasonable to expect businesspeople to distinguish between fake and real driver's licenses and Social Security cards.

He added that immigration laws are unevenly enforced, punishing small business owners like himself and esentially making him a scapegoat.

| Meredith Rodriguez


http://ohmygov.com/blogs/general_news/a ... entmessage


Homeland Security officials hired illegal immigrants for home cleaning

James D. Reid, owner of Consistent Cleaning Service, was fined $22,880 after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigators said he failed to check identification and work documents and fill out required I-9 verification forms for employees who turned out to be illegal immigrants. Why is this news? Well, because five of these undocumented workers were part of crews who cleaned the home of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff for nearly four years, presenting their identification for screening to the Secret Service each time they returned.

Reid admitted to The Washington Post that he made mistakes, but said the fine was excessively large and may put him out of business. He also raised a common objection among employers: it is unreasonable to expect businesspeople to distinguish between fake and real driver's licenses and Social Security cards.

Apparently forgeries have gotten so good that even the nation's top security officers can't ferret out the fakes.

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

A Secret Service spokesman declined to discuss specific screening practices, but did emphasize that the agents use the workers' IDs to conduct security checks, not immigration checks.

A DHS spokesman said that Chertoff is not to blame for the hiring of illegal immigrants to clean his home. Contractors bear the responsibility of ensuring that their workers are legal and that as soon as Chertoff learned that Reid might have hired illegals, he fired him.

The same defense cannot be made for Lorraine Henderson, the Boston Port Director for the Customs and Border Protection agency - a division of DHS. Henderson was arrested last week for hiring a housekeeper who she knew to be an illegal immigrant. The most damaging evidence is a tape of her telling her cleaning woman, who was cooperating with ICE officials and wearing a wire, that she needed to be "careful' not to get detected by immigration officials when trying to obtain citizenship documents for her newborn.

These cases illustrate the complexity and the hypocrisy inherent in our current immigration enforcement situation. As long as Americans want cheap labor and immigrants want to make a better life for themselves and their families, illegal immigrants will have a place in America. Comprehensive immigration reform might provide stronger border protections and better tools for determining immigration status of workers, but it will not address the root economic and human issues.

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http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?sectio ... tatus=ok__

WASHINGTON — The nation's top immigration cop unknowingly used a company that hired illegal immigrants to clean his home for about three years, starting in 2005.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff hired the Maryland-based Consistent Cleaning Services to clean his home in the D.C. suburbs every few weeks for the past three years until an investigation conducted by one of his department's agencies discovered the company hired illegal workers.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation, which began in January, culminated in charges against the owner of the cleaning company, James Reid, who was fined $22,800 in October, according to a homeland security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. Nine of Reid's employees were found using fraudulent documents, and 11 did not produce the appropriate forms to verify that they were legally allowed to work in the United States, the official said.

The investigation has not proven that any of the illegal workers actually cleaned Chertoff's home, the official said. But company owner James Reid said he knows at least six of his employees that he had to fire due to their illegal status worked at one time at the Chertoffs' home.

The company had cleaned Chertoff's home every few weeks for $185 since 2005. Chertoff became aware of the situation in April, fired the company and stayed out of the investigation, the homeland security official said.

Chertoff spokesman Russ Knocke said contractors are responsible for ensuring that their employees can work in the U.S. legally. "As customers, the Chertoffs obtained assurances from Mr. Reid that any personnel he dispatched to their home were authorized to work in the United States," Knocke said in a statement Thursday.

Reid said he has all of the documentation for his employees and was always operating under the belief that their documents were legitimate. He said the fines could put him out of business, and the publicity has already cost him customers.

Reid asks how he is supposed to know the difference between a real and fake Social Security card. "I'm not a forensic specialist," he said. Reid blames Homeland Security — specifically the Secret Service — for the problem. He said homeland security should be doing every background check possible to make sure situations like these don't happen.

The Secret Service, which is part of the Homeland Security Department, screens all workers at the Chertoff residence. The screening includes criminal history checks, physical screening and an agent escort while on the premises, Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren 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 work force," Knocke said.

Speaking Oct. 23 on the state of immigration, Chertoff boasted about his department's record year for worksite enforcement cases — which led to more than 6,000 arrests.

He also said, "We need to make sure our own house is in order," referring not to his own home, but to the federal government, which now is required to use a federal online database to check whether the workers are in the country legally.

To solve the immigration problem, Chertoff has said the next administration will need to go back to Congress for comprehensive reform. When Congress failed to pass a comprehensive immigration overhaul in 2007, the administration kicked up its enforcement of the immigration laws already on the books.

Pressure to revisit immigration reform will build quickly on President-elect Barack Obama's administration and the new Congress, from Latino supporters, immigration groups and some business interests. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has said Democrats may have to give up some of their priorities — such as giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship — to get an agreement.

Before Chertoff was nominated to be homeland security secretary, President George W. Bush selected former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik for the job. Kerik withdrew his name after acknowledging he had not paid all taxes for a family nanny-housekeeper and that the woman may have been in the country illegally.

Thursday, December 11, 2008 | 3:28 PM
AP

WASHINGTON — The nation's top immigration cop unknowingly used a company that hired illegal immigrants to clean his home for about three years, starting in 2005.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff hired the Maryland-based Consistent Cleaning Services to clean his home in the D.C. suburbs every few weeks for the past three years until an investigation conducted by one of his department's agencies discovered the company hired illegal workers.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation, which began in January, culminated in charges against the owner of the cleaning company, James Reid, who was fined $22,800 in October, according to a homeland security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. Nine of Reid's employees were found using fraudulent documents, and 11 did not produce the appropriate forms to verify that they were legally allowed to work in the United States, the official said.
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The investigation has not proven that any of the illegal workers actually cleaned Chertoff's home, the official said. But company owner James Reid said he knows at least six of his employees that he had to fire due to their illegal status worked at one time at the Chertoffs' home.

The company had cleaned Chertoff's home every few weeks for $185 since 2005. Chertoff became aware of the situation in April, fired the company and stayed out of the investigation, the homeland security official said.

Chertoff spokesman Russ Knocke said contractors are responsible for ensuring that their employees can work in the U.S. legally. "As customers, the Chertoffs obtained assurances from Mr. Reid that any personnel he dispatched to their home were authorized to work in the United States," Knocke said in a statement Thursday.

Reid said he has all of the documentation for his employees and was always operating under the belief that their documents were legitimate. He said the fines could put him out of business, and the publicity has already cost him customers.

Reid asks how he is supposed to know the difference between a real and fake Social Security card. "I'm not a forensic specialist," he said. Reid blames Homeland Security — specifically the Secret Service — for the problem. He said homeland security should be doing every background check possible to make sure situations like these don't happen.

The Secret Service, which is part of the Homeland Security Department, screens all workers at the Chertoff residence. The screening includes criminal history checks, physical screening and an agent escort while on the premises, Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren 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 work force," Knocke said.

Speaking Oct. 23 on the state of immigration, Chertoff boasted about his department's record year for worksite enforcement cases — which led to more than 6,000 arrests.

He also said, "We need to make sure our own house is in order," referring not to his own home, but to the federal government, which now is required to use a federal online database to check whether the workers are in the country legally.

To solve the immigration problem, Chertoff has said the next administration will need to go back to Congress for comprehensive reform. When Congress failed to pass a comprehensive immigration overhaul in 2007, the administration kicked up its enforcement of the immigration laws already on the books.

Pressure to revisit immigration reform will build quickly on President-elect Barack Obama's administration and the new Congress, from Latino supporters, immigration groups and some business interests. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has said Democrats may have to give up some of their priorities — such as giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship — to get an agreement.

Before Chertoff was nominated to be homeland security secretary, President George W. Bush selected former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik for the job. Kerik withdrew his name after acknowledging he had not paid all taxes for a family nanny-housekeeper and that the woman may have been in the country illegally.
(Copyright ©2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)