Bernard Kerik is now the third cabinet appointee to get derailed because of the illegal nanny problem.
President Bush readily accepted Bernard B. Kerik’s decision to withdraw his nomination as homeland security secretary after the White House quickly concluded on Friday evening that it would be impossible for him to win confirmation for a post that supervises enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws if he had had immigration problems in his own household, White House officials said on Saturday.
It’s too bad about Bernie. It would have been good for NYC to have him as Homeland Chief. The city really deserves to be getting a bigger slice of the homeland defense pie.
Slightly amused that a man finally got nailed for the nanny problem.
Hiring illegal aliens as nannies is against the law. Not paying social security is also against the law. But, damn. Everybody I know does it. Couldn’t he say that he did it, but didn’t inhale?
Husband and I are discussing nannies right now, during commericials of the Survivior Finale. Husband points out that our whole block runs on the energy of illegal aliens. They cut Sue’s lawn across the street. The contractor, two houses down, employs them to put up drywall and spackle. Bill, next door, owns a pavement company. I’m sure that the guys pouring his tar don’t speak much English.
Yes, hiring illegal aliens is a bigger problem for a Homeland Chief because he’ll be in charge of immigration issues. But considering the work that illegals do in this country, isn’t better to acknowledge it than deny it?
UPDATE: Thanks to my readers, I have going through Josh Marshall’s posts on Kerik. Really good stuff. I read Marshall from time to time, but I’ve got to make it a daily thing. Marshall questions if there was even really a nanny. It seems that Kerik has so many skeletons that a nanny might have been invented to save face.
Apt. 11d 
Well this whole Bernard Kerik thing has affected me personally. See:
http://mathias2567.blogspot.com/2004/12/setting-record-straight-updated-to-all.html
Click Here
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Our nanny was a legal immigrant, and we paid social security (employer-share). It was a LOT more expensive than hiring an illegal, partly because of the social security and partly because, since she was legal, she had other options and we had to pay more to hire her in the ‘legal’ market – for example, we also paid her Kaiser and her daughter’s Kaiser. However, the TRULY suicidal thing to do, from an expense standpoint, is to hire a person with status and pay her off the books, because she has nothing to fear and can report you to IRS after the employment is over, and you have to pay all the back Social Security and a penalty.
We should resolve the contradictions in our immigration policy – make it more difficult to immigrate illegally and work, and then be more honest about how many immigrants and what skills we really want to admit, and do it above board.
Kerik, on the other hand, has a number of problems of which the nanny is the most palatable, and it was the least embarrassing thing to announce as the reason.
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If we really need these people to do the work, because there is no US citizen who is capable of it or able to learn it (we have 150,000 people a month coming online who need jobs in this country), then we should increase immigration allowances and force people in this country working illegally to come back through legal channels. If we really need these 7 million illegals, then up the available work visas by 7 mill. Don’t let people come in illegally.
1) they aren’t willing to use legal protections for injury etc, meaning we have to pay more for health care because they get treated without being able to pay.
2) illegal immigration is a threat to national security
3) illegal workers are targets for exploitation and abuse
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Not paying Social Security for your illegal alien workers is exploitation. The reason they are hired is because they will work cheaper and cost you, the employer, less. In that way, you are no different then Wal-Mart by exploiting workers in order to maintain your bottom line.
Without illegal immigrant labor, our economy would crumble. No homes would be cleaned, no children taken care of, no cars parked, no offices cleaned, no dishes washed at the local bistro. I am not saying we should take a hard line, but instead getting people to at least be honest about it.
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I see you’re not reading the Daily News (me neither). A good summary of the Kerik affair (or actually affairs) is at http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com today. The nanny is just a small piece of a far from attractive picture of Kerik that is being dug up by every NY paper but the Times.
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There is a great movie that just came out on this called “A day without Mexicans”. It basically makes light of every issue that has come to light over this topic.
With regards to flamie’s post: 1) they aren’t willing to use legal protections for injury etc, meaning we have to pay more for health care because they get treated without being able to pay.
Not really. You pay more for health care because costs go up for medicine and the R&D for such medicines. Health care costs are based upon the prices you pay for the various supplies of medicines and the skills that are needed for procedures. As a result, health care costs go up because of the liability of doctors and the increase in malpracice suits and settlements, even though risk have been greatly reduced over time with the perfection of techniques and new technology.
Now you could say that your taxes go up because of a county clinic or hospital, but the direct impact of having EMS services as well as local outpatient services are something that I think more people are willign to deal with.
2) illegal immigration is a threat to national security
Right. Keep believing this one.In case you forgot, all of the 911 bombers came through via normal channels and had passports, visa, and a mastery of the nation and how things work here. Anybody wnating to do harm is more likely to go through regular avenues rather than trying to cross the border illegally.
3) illegal workers are targets for exploitation and abuse
I agree with you on this. But I also think that by saying that there is a surplus in teh labor force does not mean that there are people with a sufficient skill set to take a job. Would you think that a white collar computer programmer who lost his job to outsourcing is going to work on a construction site as a day laborer? Even though there are so many jobs opening up, are they good jobs?
I think what needs to happen is that services need to be created to fill the voids for these jobs with workers who are willign to do them and at the same time acting as liasons for the workers so they do get health care. People move to America for the American dream, of making something somethign and the willingness to take huge risks. We can’t get rid of the American spirit by closing our borders.
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kip — Hey, you’re the first family member to dare show their face on my blog! It pisses off my very conservative mommy and daddy. Maria only checks to see if I’m slandering her. Chris is too cool for this. And now too sleep deprived. Our niece sure is a cutie even if she’s keep your sister and my brother up all night.
And thanks for the good comment.
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How do you know they are illegal immigrants? Is it stamped on their foreheads or something? And what about the fact that every Irish bar in NYC would go under for lack of bartenders etc. if all the illegal immigrants were to suddenly disappear. Just wondering.
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Do read Josh Marshall at talkingpointsmemo.com. Far from Kerik “getting nailed for the nanny problem,” the nanny problem is being used (maybe even invented — see TPM) to cover for worse and multiple skeletons in his closet.
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