Moreover, K-12 school districts still have the right to require all its students to live within its geographic boundaries and many illegal aliens do not. But this requires action from a governor who had the power to direct his education department to institute school registration procedures that check for residency. There is no record of Romney ever doing this.
Romney Calls for Stricter Employer Enforcement but used Illegals for Yard Work
As always, Romney sounded tough on employer sanctions during the campaign. His campaign literature said this:
Employers will be held accountable if they hire illegal immigrants with stiffer fines and penalties. (28)
Romney himself proposed a system whereby:
If you want to hire someone that’s not a US Citizen with a valid Social Security number, you ask for the card. You then verify it on the computer, and you can hire them if it’s a valid card if they have a card. If they don’t have a card and you hire them anyway, then you’re going to be subject to the same kind of sanctions you get for not paying your taxes. And that’s typically fines, very substantial fines, they get larger and larger. (29)
Romney, however, did not personally act the way he expected other employers to act. Indeed, for a decade, Romney never bothered to check the citizen status of those he hired to tend to his 2 1/2 acres of grass:
But, for a decade, the governor has used a landscaping company that relies heavily on workers like these, illegal Guatemalan immigrants, to maintain the ground surrounding his pink Colonial house on March Street in Belmont. …Romney never inquired about their status, they said. (30)
While Romney says he was unaware of the immigration status of these workers, the same argument is often used by employers whom Romney wants to assess with huge fines. Moreover, the media first broke the story about illegal aliens working on Romney’s yard in December of 2006. (31)
While Romney instructed the landscaping company to terminate the illegal workers (interestingly, despite Romney’s “tough guy” rhetoric on this issue, he did not call the INS on the illegal workers), they continued to work for Romney for another year. It wasn’t until December of 2007 that Romney actually terminated the contract with the landscaping company that apparently refused to let the illegal workers go:
Today I learned that employees of your company, who were assigned to work on my property, are not permitted to work in the United States. Give your company’s disregard for the clear instructions provided on this issue last year, I am force to terminate my contract with your company, effective immediately. (32)
But one has to wonder if immigration authorities would give an employer who uses illegal workers a year to comply with the law. The answer is NO. Romney is certainly not following the same standard he wants to apply to everyone else. Indeed, Romney was even insulted that he would be required to ask foreign looking workers whether they have papers but this is exactly what Romney wants to require all employers to do. Here is Romney debating this point with Rudy Giuliani:
Are you suggesting, Mr. Mayor—because I think it’s really kind of offensive, actually, to suggest—to say, look, you know what, if you’re a homeowner and you hire a company to come provide a service at your home…if you hear someone with a funny accent, you, as a homeowner, are supposed to go out there and say, ‘I want to see your papers.’ Is that what you’re suggesting? That you now are responsible for going out and checking the employees of that company, particularly those that might look different or don’t have an accent like yours, and ask for their papers? I don’t think that’s American….(33)
The Role of Conservative Leaders in Covering up Romney’s Immigration Record