The Boston Globe has the scoop! Mitt Romney hired illegal immigrant landscapers to groom his palatial Belmont, MA estate! Can't you just feel the outrage building inside you, ready to explode. I know I can.
As Governor Mitt Romney explores a presidential bid, he has grown outspoken in his criticism of illegal immigration. But, for a decade, the governor has used a landscaping company that relies heavily on workers like these, illegal Guatemalan immigrants, to maintain the grounds surrounding his pink Colonial house on Marsh Street in Belmont.
The Globe recently interviewed four current and former employees of Community Lawn Service with a Heart, the tiny Chelsea-based company that provides upkeep of Romney's property. All but one said they were in the United States illegally.
The employees told the Globe that company owner Ricardo Saenz never asked them to provide documents showing their immigration status and knew they were illegal immigrants.
"He never asked for papers," said Rosales, who said he had paid smugglers about $5,000 to take him across the US-Mexican border and settled in Chelsea.
The workers said they were paid in cash at $9 to $10 an hour and sometimes worked 11-hour days.
Romney never inquired about their status, they said.
Oh, the hypocrisy! I'm sorry, when did it become Mitt Romney's personal responsibility to certify the immigration status of every employee of every company he hires? I certainly wouldn't make it my responsibility to snoop into the background of a landscaping company's workers if I needed a walkway installed or some shrubs planted. There are, you know, laws and agencies that are supposed to control this sort of thing. I suppose the Globe would have a point here if Romney had been notified of their status and continued to employ them, but that is not their assertion.
Get ready for more of this. The Globe is going to spend the next 18 months digging for dirt on Mitt Romney, trying to spike his presidential aspirations. All well and good, except it's certainly not a bipartisan journalistic effort. After all, the state sports some other politicians, such as Senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, whose backgrounds are a lot more...interesting, shall we say?
11/20/06 0630: Jay Tea realized another Globe slight of hand. In this story "undocumented workers" were magically transformed into "illegal immigrants." When you're attacking a Republican I guess it's okay to use the more accurate term.
Comments