DHS Nominee Withdraws over Immigration Issue
Posted Dec 17, 2004
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In last week's MurthyBulletin, we reported that the President had nominated Bernard Kerik to succeed Tom Ridge as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). That article, Bernard Kerik to Replace DHS Secretary Ridge, is available on MurthyDotCom. Since then, Mr. Kerik, has withdrawn himself from consideration for the position. The announcement was made the evening of Friday, December 10, 2004, prior to initiation of the required Senate confirmation hearings. The reason for this change in events was that Mr. Kerik may have employed an undocumented housekeeper / nanny. In his withdrawal statement, he indicated that he uncovered information that led him to question the employee's immigration status. He also notes that he did not pay the required taxes as the employer of this individual.
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This is not the first time that nanny / domestic employee hiring practices have arisen in the context of Presidential Cabinet appointments. The issue was covered extensively in 1993 in connection with two Clinton-era nominees for the position of Attorney General, first with Zoe Baird and immediately thereafter, with Kimba Wood. The matter at that time was referred to as "nanny gate" or as having a "Zoe Baird problem." Mr. Kerik is not the first cabinet-level nominee with whom the Bush administration has encountered this issue. In the President's first term, nominee for the position of Labor Secretary, Linda Chavez, also withdrew from consideration. Her withdrawal was due to a rather unclear situation involving a woman from Guatemala who had lived within Ms. Chavez's household. Nominee Chavez contended that she helped the woman and gave her refuge, but did not employ her.
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MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers may conclude that these instances reflect a problem in our national immigration policies regarding nannies and housekeepers. While this country has a great need for childcare, we do not have a workable temporary category for these positions, with the exception of the J-1 au pair program. If people devoted to law enforcement, employment issues, and the judicial system run afoul of the immigration laws in order to obtain care for their own children, it must indicate difficulty in lawfully obtaining desirable employees from among the general U.S. workforce. We will wait to see who is nominated next. The hope is that the new Secretary of the DHS will have a background that reflects a balance between immigration enforcement and benefits.