Whether California Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman knew her housekeeper was an illegal immigrant or not, the issue exemplifies many Americans' attitude toward illegal immigration.
Celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred trotted out a tearful Nicky Diaz-Santillan at a Los Angeles press conference on Wednesday. Diaz, who spent nine years working for Whitman, claims she was fired in 2009 after asking Whitman and her husband, Griffith Harsh, for help to earn legal status.
Allred claims Whitman knew about Diaz being undocumented years earlier, but did nothing. Whitman insists she didn't know about her housekeeper's immigration problems.
If Allred's allegations are true, which is far from certain, they could cost Whitman valuable support among voters in what is shaping up to be a tight race. A recent Los Angeles Times/USC poll showed Brown ahead among voters by five percent, but other surveys have found the gap between the two to be much narrower.
Add to that a heaping measure of irony. Whitman has taken a tough stance on illegal immigration, saying in a debate with Democratic opponent Jerry Brown this week that she opposes comprehensive reform that includes a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants. Brown supports such a plan. And Whitman has sunk millions of dollars into advertisements in the Spanish-language media.
Unless someone comes up with written documents to prove Diaz's claims, the issue threatens to become a political knot that's almost impossible to untangle.
But whether Whitman knew about Diaz or not, the development typifies Americans' schizophrenic behavior toward illegal immigration. We think it's a bad thing that should stop ... as long as we get to keep our poorly paid maids, nannies, groundskeepers and farm workers.
Read more about Whitman's housekeeper problems here:
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Nice piece Leonel. The last paragraph nails it.
ReplyDelete- Mark
Thanks, Mark. I see your blog is going well also. Somebody needs to educate the Philistines. ;-)
ReplyDeleteLeonel