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Boston Globe ups the campaign ante, lies about Romney

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Posted by: fossten

Illegal immigrants toiled for governor

Guatemalans say firm hired them
December 1, 2006

This story was reported by Jonathan Saltzman and Maria Cramer of the Globe staff and by Globe correspondent Connie Paige and was written by Saltzman.

SUCHITEPEQUEZ, Guatemala -- Outside his aqua-colored concrete house here, Rene Alvarez Rosales paused under an almond tree to answer questions about a subject with which he has surprising familiarity: Governor Mitt Romney's Belmont lawn.

For about eight years, Rosales said, he worked on and off landscaping the grounds at Romney's home, occasionally getting a "buenos dias" from Romney or a drink of water from his wife, Ann.

"She is very nice," said Rosales, 49.

About 6 miles away in Copado, a 37-year-old man who recently returned to Guatemala from the United States told a similar story, describing long days tending Romney's 2 1/2-acre grounds.

"They wanted that house to look really nice," said the worker, who asked to remain anonymous. "It took a long time."

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 [allegedly?] 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.

In addition to maintaining the governor's property, they also tended to the lawn at the house owned by Romney's son, Taggart, less than a mile away on the same winding street.

Asked by a reporter yesterday about his use of Community Lawn Service with a Heart, Romney, who was hosting the Republican Governors Association conference in Miami, said, "Aw, geez," and walked away.

Several hours later, his spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, provided the Globe with a statement saying that the governor knows nothing about the immigration status of the landscaping workers, and that his dealings were with Saenz, who is a legal immigrant from Colombia.

Fehrnstrom said that Romney would look into the matter further.

"We'll see what happens from here on out," Fehrnstrom said. "If the Globe has information on people that are in the country illegally, obviously that would have to be verified. . . . We've already taken the first step in that direction by calling Mr. Saenz."

The situation underscores the extent to which illegal immigrants permeate the US economy. Even as Romney travels the country, vowing to curb the flood of low-skilled illegal immigrants into the United States, some of those workers maintain his own yard, cutting grass, pruning shrubs, and mulching trees.

Saenz said he met Romney through the Mormon Church and said Romney has used his company's services for a decade. Saenz said Romney never asked him if his workers are legal immigrants.

"He doesn't have to ask," Saenz said. "I'm a company."

Saenz asserted that all the workers he used were in the United States legally. Told by reporters that his employees said they were in this country illegally, Saenz responded: "What you've heard is not my problem."

Saenz said he had never requested any proof from his employees to show they are here legally.

"I don't need to tell them to show me documents," he said. "I know who they are, and they are legal."

Federal law calls for employers to examine the documents, such as green cards or Social Security cards, that establish an employee's identity and eligibility to work in the United States.

The Globe received a tip in July alleging that Romney was using illegal immigrants to landscape his property. Reporters then observed the lawn service workers outside Romney's house more than a dozen times, sometimes as frequently as twice a week.

Reporters tracked down four current and former employees of the company at their homes in Chelsea and in Guatemala. All had landscaped Romney's property while working for Community Lawn Service with a Heart, and their tenure ranged from one worker who had joined the company just a month ago to another who had worked there 10 years.

The workers said they found the jobs at the landscaping company through other Guatemalan immigrants after arriving in Chelsea.

Of the four interviewed, only one said he was in the United States legally, showing a reporter his Social Security card and a Massachusetts driver's license, which the reporter checked against public databases to verify its authenticity. The other workers acknowledged they had no genuine documents, though some said they purchased fake documents, and described harrowing trips to the United States, eluding authorities and paying thousands for their passage. The interviews were conducted in Spanish. [how convenient!]

The [alleged?] undocumented workers appear to be a significant presence at the tiny company. Reporters who observed the company in recent months never saw more than three people working at any time. Typically two men were working on any given day.

Community Lawn Service also provides landscaping for a Massachusetts Port Authority property in Revere and public school grounds in Chelsea. The Globe reported in June that companies using undocumented workers had received state contracts, triggering intense debate on Beacon Hill. Romney and GOP lawmakers have supported an effort to prohibit the practice.

The workers who had landscaped Romney's property seemed unaware of the governor's support for stricter controls on illegal immigration. Several described casual encounters with Romney over the years and said he had never expressed any curiosity about their status.

Rosales recalled Romney sometimes waving as they tended to the grounds, which include a tennis court and swimming pool. Romney occasionally called out, "buenos dias," drawing good-natured laughter from the workers. Ann Romney was friendly, Rosales said, and he said she brought them water on one particularly hot day.

Romney has been critical of illegal immigration as he touts himself to Republican primary voters as a conservative alternative to Senator John McCain, who has teamed up with Senator Edward M. Kennedy to push for a middle ground approach on the issue. [Well, we can't allow that to happen, can we? Better stop him now, like the WaPo did to George Allen!]

Romney supports construction of a new 700-mile fence along the country's border with Mexico and stationing National Guard troops at the border until it is finished.

He also said that employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants should be penalized. After the Globe's story in June about contractors on public projects using illegal immigrants, the governor announced he would seek an agreement with federal immigration authorities to allow Massachusetts State Police to arrest illegal immigrants for being in this country illegally.

In September, on Fox TV's "The O'Reilly Factor," Romney said the border must be secured and restated his support for the fence along the Mexican border, prompting host Bill O'Reilly to dub it "the Mitt Romney Memorial wall."

The experience of the workers on Romney's property seems far removed from the political rhetoric.

The worker in Copado said a state trooper stationed in Romney's driveway once inquired about his immigration status, about six months ago. Saenz, the company owner, who was at the property at the time, told the trooper that the worker was in the country legally, but had forgotten his papers, the worker told the Globe. The trooper never inquired again, said the worker, who repeatedly returned to the governor's property but avoided the trooper. Saenz told reporters he did not recall the incident. [I knew it! The smoking gun!]

Both the Copado resident and Rosales said they took the landscaping jobs to earn money for their families back home. After making it to the US-Mexican border, they crossed the Arizona desert on foot. When they finally arrived in Chelsea, where friends and family lived, they did odd jobs and eventually found work at Community Lawn Service with a Heart.

They said they were grateful for the work. About 80 percent of Guatemalans live in poverty, according to the US State Department. The workers said they made far more at Community Lawn Service than they could in their Central American homeland.

"It was a good job," said the worker in Copado, not far from a stream where local women wash their clothes. "I didn't make a lot, but I earned $16,000 working for that company." He said he returned to Guatemala after four years because he missed his wife and daughter and has used his earnings to buy a pickup truck and land on which to build a small house.

Another of the [allegedly?] undocumented workers, who has been living in Chelsea for two years and joined the landscaping firm a month ago, is finding life here hard.

"The truth is, it's very difficult," the 46-year-old worker said. "One lives day to day."

The one legal Guatemalan immigrant interviewed by the Globe, who has done work at the Romney property numerous times, has been a constant presence at the landscaping company. But he said Saenz regularly hired illegal workers to work alongside him. He said exchanges with the governor on the property are rare.

"The one who talks to us is the wife," said the legal immigrant. "She asks how we are."

The issue of illegal immigrant laborers has been tricky and sometimes damaging to political figures. [He said proudly.] President Clinton's first two nominees for attorney general, Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood, saw their chances dim after it was reported that they had employed illegal immigrants as nannies.

In 1994, Republican Michael Huffington lost his bid for the US Senate after acknowledging he had employed an illegal immigrant as a nanny for five years.

Interesting that the headline says the "illegals" toiled for the governor, even though that's not true. They "toiled" (nice word) for their employer, who was hired by Romney. Nice twist of the truth.

And here's today's article: [Flat Lie Alert]

Who's cutting Romney's lawn?

December 6, 2006

THE NEWS that Governor Romney employed illegal immigrants to care for his lawn in Belmont should not come as a surprise. It's obvious to anyone who lives in the Boston area that many people who work for landscaping services are immigrants without proper documents. Now that the governor knows the truth about the people who work at his house, perhaps he'll change his views about the need for punitive anti-immigrant policies. [snip]

Posted by: 97silverlsc

Snore.
Get some kaopectate for that verbal diarhea fossie.

Posted by: fossten

Quote:

Originally Posted by 97silverlsc

Snore.
Get some kaopectate for that verbal diarhea fossie.

Go back to sleep, this conversation is too deep for you.

Posted by: 97silverlsc

Gov. Romney's Record on Gays Questioned

By DAVID WEBER
Associated Press Writer
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...LATE=DEFAU LT

BOSTON (AP) -- Gov. Mitt Romney's beliefs on gay issues are under scrutiny after the re-emergence of a letter he wrote during his 1994 run for U.S. Senate in which he promised a gay Republicans group he would be a stronger advocate for gays than Sen. Edward Kennedy.

Romney's views in the letter contrast with recent statements by the Massachusetts governor, who has emphasized his opposition to gay marriage as he positions himself as a committed conservative in preparation for an expected 2008 run for the Republican presidential nomination.

The 1994 letter was written to the Log Cabin Club of Massachusetts, a gay Republican group, when Romney was courting gay voters during his unsuccessful campaign against Kennedy.

Citing Kennedy's record of advocacy for gays and lesbians, Romney wrote, "For some voters, it might be enough to simply match my opponent's record in this area. But I believe we can and must do better. If we are to achieve the goals we share, we must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern. My opponent cannot do this. I can and will."

A gay-oriented Massachusetts newspaper, Bay Windows, has also released a transcript of a 1994 interview with Romney during the Senate race in which he pledged strong advocacy for the gay community.

"I think the gay community needs more support from the Republican party, and I would be a voice in the Republican party to foster anti-discrimination efforts," Romney said, according to the transcript.

During the same interview, Romney said he opposed then-U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms' legislative amendment to ban federal funding for public schools that support homosexuality as a lifestyle alternative.

"I don't think the federal government has any business dictating to local school boards what their curriculum or practices should be," Romney said, according to the transcript. "I think that's a dangerous precedent in general. I would have opposed that. It also grossly misunderstands the gay community by insinuating that there's an attempt to proselytize a gay lifestyle on the part of the gay community."

In the Log Cabin Club letter, Romney also said he supported President Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding gays serving in the armed forces, describing it as "the first in a number of steps that will ultimately lead to gays and lesbians being able to serve openly and honestly in our nation's military."

Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, said Romney's comments were "quite disturbing."

"This is going to create a lot of problems for Governor Romney," he told The New York Times in Saturday's editions. "He is going to have a hard time overcoming this."

Noted conservative Paul Weyrich told The Times, "Unless he comes out with an abject repudiation of this, I think it makes him out to be a hypocrite."

Romney was wrapping up a weeklong trip to Asia on Saturday and could not be reached for comment.

In an e-mailed statement, Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said as governor, Romney has never advocated changing the military's policy toward gays and has consistently supported traditional values.

Romney recently became a plaintiff in a lawsuit to force the state Legislature to vote on a constitutional amendment that would reverse the state's landmark 2003 court ruling legalizing gay marriage. State lawmakers have refused to vote on the amendment, which would kill it.

"As governor, Mitt Romney has been a champion of traditional marriage," Fehrnstrom said in his statement. "He's fought the efforts of activist judges who seek to redefine marriage, and he's testified before the U.S. Senate in support of the Federal Marriage Amendment. Governor Romney has been a leader in protecting marriage and in focusing this debate on the needs of children."

Arline Isaacson, co-chair of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, said she cautioned gay and lesbians against believing Romney's overtures in 1994, and said conservatives shouldn't trust him, either.

"He can't be trusted," she said. "Because if it is politically expedient for him to swing to his right or swing to his left, he will do it."

Yep, good repug candidate, he's got the hypocritical lying part down!

Posted by: evillally

Republicans-

Being a lifelong subject of the Communistwealth, I give you this advice regarding Romney: When the primary comes along, just remember to vote for someone other than this monkey-ass wolf in sheep' clothing. That's all you need to know.