Undocumented Workers Cleaned Chertoff’s Home

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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