Dec 4, 2007 10:17 pm US/Eastern
Romney Fires Landscaper After Bout Over Illegals
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
Republican Mitt Romney is dealing with another controversy surrounding illegal immigrants doing work at his Belmont home.
The former governor fired a landscaping company Tuesday after learning for a second time about undocumented workers laboring on the property.
The former Massachusetts governor has made combating illegal immigration a core theme of his White House run.
During a debate last week in Florida, fellow Republican Rudy Giuliani accused Romney of owning a "sanctuary mansion" after The Boston Globe reported last year his landscaper employed illegal workers.
Romney denied the charge, saying he wasn't responsible for a legal company hiring illegal workers.
But in a follow-up report, the Globe says a worker raking leaves at Romney's house the day after the debate told a reporter that he paid $7,000 to be smuggled into the U.S. from Arizona.
Romney said in a written statement Tuesday, "The company's failure to comply with the law is disappointing and inexcusable, and I believe it is important I take this action."
WBZ's Jon Keller learned that Romney didn't fire the landscaper after the Globe's first report. He instead fired him Tuesday after the Globe's second report was brought to his attention.
Romney said in a statement that he kept the company on after being guaranteed future workers would be legal.
"They were instructed to make sure people working for the company were of legal status. The owner of the company guaranteed us, in very certain terms, that the company would be in total compliance with the law going forward."
The company's owner, Ricardo Saenz, said his workers had shown him documentation of their legal status but admitted that he never double-checked the apparently-fake documents.
He said he sees his dismissal by Romney as all about politics.
"I don't know what happened," Saenz said. "Maybe it's because he's running for president. I don't know why he let me go. It has to be for political reasons."
This latest controversy will no doubt be grounds for attack from Romney's political opponents, Keller said.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
