Nanny Trouble

13 December 2004



Kerik Withdraws Nomination for Heimatschutzminister

Bernard Kerik was not qualified to be head of homeland security because, frankly, he’s ethically challenged and did a lousy job as police commissioner in New York City (ask any non-white New Yorker). The warrant for his arrest in New Jersey, as reported in Newsweek, wasn’t what got him either. Instead, he had to withdraw because he seems to have had an illegal alien as a nanny and didn’t pay the appropriate employment taxes. That he had to quit is all that really matters, but there is a lesson here.

Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood were two lawyers President Clinton thought would make fine attorneys-general. However, the Republicans in Congress blocked first Ms. Baird and then Ms. Wood for having illegals work for them and not paying taxes required by law. Hillary Clinton claimed this was evidence of some right-wing conspiracy to get her husband, but when Linda Chavez, whom Mr. Bush wanted as Labor Secretary in 2001, also had this problem. And so a standard fell into place.

America has a hunger for cheap labor, and it is not likely to be supplied by native born Yanks who understand that the minimum wage is not a living wage. Instead, law-abiding pillars of the community like Ms. Baird, Ms. Wood and Ms. Chavez hire people who will work for less. And who is prepared to work for less than $5.15 an hour? A great many people who are in the US illegally aren’t in a position to complain about financial exploitation, or sexual abuse, or anything else if they want to stay in the land of the free.

Three things need to happen to change this situation. First, the US has to create a plausible guest-worker program that creates legal rights and redress for the hundreds of thousands who wish to come to work in America. Second, it must spend tax money on deportation processes for those who are illegally in the country. Rather than driver licenses, illegal aliens should be given bus tickets, and since it will be easier to legally work in the States, illegal immigration and the exploitation that goes with it will diminish.

The third thing that must happen is employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens must face criminal penalties – not just fines, but real jail time. If there were no demand, there’d be no supply of illegal labor. Anything less compromises American security. And the nanny trouble was just a fig leaf anyway.

© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.

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