U.S. Border Control

Romney finally fires landscaper over illegals

December 5, 2007

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, having been ridiculed by rival Rudy Giuliani for employing illegal immigrants at his 'sanctuary mansion,' said he has fired the landscaper for his suburban Boston home. Romney had learned for a second time about undocumented landscaping employees working on the property.

Romney said: 'After this issue arose last year, I gave the company a second chance with very specific conditions. They were instructed to make sure people working for the company were of legal status.  We personally met with the company in order to inform them about the importance of this matter,' he said. 'The owner of the company guaranteed us, in very certain terms, that the company would be in total compliance with the law going forward.'

Romney termed the recurrence 'disappointing and inexcusable.'  The former Massachusetts governor has made combating illegal immigration a theme of his campaign.

His plan to stop illegal immigration includes building fences along the U.S.-Mexico border; developing a tamperproof ID card so only legal immigrants can work and cutting off federal money to 'sanctuary cities' providing safe haven to illegal immigrants.

Last week, Romney chastised Giuliani for continuing sanctuary status for New York while he served as the city's mayor. That prompted Giuliani to accuse Romney of owning a 'sanctuary mansion' after The Boston Globe reported last year his landscaper employed illegal workers.

The Globe, in a follow-up report, said it observed at least two illegal workers on Romney's property the morning after the debate, raking leaves from the grass and debris from the tennis court. The newspaper said it had also observed the same workers during the prior two months.

The newspaper said it interviewed the two workers and one said he had paid $7,000 to a smuggler to escort him across the desert into Arizona. The other said he had come to the country with a student visa that has since expired.

'As soon as we were given credible information that people assigned to work on the governor's property were not of legal status, we acted,' Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said. 'The governor has been on the road almost constantly since the beginning the year and hasn't interacted with the people working on his lawn.'