Truthdig - Ear to the Ground - Undocumented Workers Cleaned Chertoff’s Home

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Undocumented Workers Cleaned Chertoff’s Home

valleywag.com

Oops! It wasn’t exactly an international incident, but it turns out that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff unintentionally had undocumented workers clean his house. According to the Los Angeles Times, Chertoff used a cleaning service in Maryland that hired several employees without properly verifying their identification.

Los Angeles Times:

Now, owner James Reid finds himself in a predicament that he considers especially confounding. In October, he was fined $22,880 after Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators said he failed to check identification and work documents and to fill out required I-9 verification forms for employees, five of whom he said were part of crews sent to Chertoff’s home and whom ICE told him to fire because they were undocumented.

“Our people need to know,” Reid said. “Our Homeland Security can’t police their own home. How can they police our borders?”

Reid admits he made mistakes but called the fine so excessive that it might put him out of business. Several of his workers moved after ICE agents showed up at their homes, he said.

Raising a common objection among employers as ICE cracks down on illegal hirings across the nation, Reid said it is unreasonable to expect businesspeople to distinguish between fake and real driver’s licenses and Social Security cards.

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By samosamo, December 12, 2008 at 4:07 pm #

I forgot to add this because it is for:
By Robert, December 12 at 7:24 am

Don’t look for much here. Chances are there will be no trial and even if there is, no real punishment and even it there is, he will be able to somehow get some bailout funds to maintain his ‘too big to fail’ status.

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By samosamo, December 12, 2008 at 4:05 pm #

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By hippy pam, December 12, 2008 at 3:32 pm #

Another instance of a “bullshit cronie” breaking the law….And never being held accountable…...

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By Blackspeare, December 12, 2008 at 2:34 pm #

If you want a job done quickly and thoroughly hire an “undocumented worker.” I know people in Southern California who rehab homes for profit and mainly use illegal workers per se——they are the most friendly hard working eager people you can find. When they hired an “American” worker the first thing he tells the illegals is to work slower so the job takes longer and they’ll make more money——no wonder jobs go overseas!!!

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By Robert, December 12, 2008 at 12:24 pm #

Former Nasdaq chairman arrested on fraud charge
AFP

Published: Thursday December 11, 2008

“A Wall Street advisor and former chairman of the Nasdaq stock market was arrested Thursday for fraud after allegedly admitting to running a “giant” pyramid scheme, prosecutors announced.

Bernard Madoff, 70, faces a maximum 20 years prison and a fine of up to five million dollars if convicted on the securities fraud charge, prosecutor Lev Dassin and the FBI said in a statement.

According to the statement, Madoff on Wednesday told his employees at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, a securities broker, that an investor advisory business he had been running in parallel was fraudulent.

Madoff filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 7 that his investor advisory business served 11 to 25 clients with about 17 billion dollars in assets under management.

But Madoff allegedly told his employees that he was “finished,” that he had “absolutely nothing” after losing approximately 50 billion dollars.

According to the prosecutor’s statement, he said he had run “a giant Ponzi scheme”—essentially a pyramid scam.

He told the employees he would surrender himself to the authorities after using his remaining 200-300 million dollars to pay selected employees and family and friends, the statement said.”

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Former_Nasdaq_chairman_arrested_on__12112008.html

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By samosamo, December 12, 2008 at 5:39 am #

The key word here is ‘unintentional’ with the ‘un’ left off for mr. gerkoff. He seems to be unanswerable to anyone just like mr. paulson. Not answerable or accountable to the law, just above the law.

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By Margaret Currey, December 11, 2008 at 8:48 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Excuse me but why is there not a system to check if Social Security cards are real or not, when I store like Target can check if your state identification card is real why is technology so hard for our government, so hard to fire incomptent people if more time was invsted in protection from social security there would be less fraud.

Now BofA will sell you fraud security for $12.00 a month, that amount might seem small but for a person on a set monthly income that is a large amount.

The break up of our country will be by the people who brought us ATM’s so our security at using these convient devices is at your peril while banks can hire less and less people.

But by using ATM’s the banks profit and then to make you feel better offer you fraud protection.

I could go on and on about how big business is making fools of people.

Now that the economy is about to tank the big bad person is the illegal. People who have worked for the government knows that hiring illegals has been standard practice. Now someone has to pay for the folly of big business(tied to government by lobbying in Washington)and it is the tax payer.

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By Ham-Archy, December 11, 2008 at 7:56 pm #

Good work ICE, HS is $22,880 more secure now. I’m sure this will never happen again.

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By skulz fontaine, December 11, 2008 at 7:56 pm #

Yeah and and, Chertoff had “illegal” terrorists working on 9/11/01! Skeleton-head bastard!

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By jonr, December 11, 2008 at 7:28 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Without even getting into a debate about how difficult it may or may not be to fake a driver’s license, what with the new holographic images all over it along with a signature, etc., what about the new program offered AT NO COST to employers for the purpose of verifying that people are who they say they are?!?
The program is called “eVerify,” and it’s an easy thing to use for anyone with access to the internet. Which, face it, includes pretty much every business owner in the US of A (and certainly anyone reading this message).
There’s no excuse for employers.

As a non-Native (capital “N”) American, I have a hard time with the whole “Now that I’ve got mine..” hypocrisy of the whole immigration issue… but what I REALLY have a hard time with is people who are well enough educated to operate a successful business pleading ignorance of who their employees really are.

If the Chamber of Commerce has a hard time with immigration law, they should work to repeal the laws they don’t like.
I can see the headlines now: “Conservative businessmen clash with Conservative working class folks over Conservative immigration policy.”

Again, the program is called, “eVerify.” Google it now.

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By desertdude, December 11, 2008 at 7:22 pm #

do as they please. Cheap labor is the deal of the day.

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