Thread: Grover Norquist, the California GOP & open borders debac

Grover Norquist, the California Republican Party, and an open-borders debacle continued
By Michelle Malkin • February 22, 2008 05:16 PM

Last June, I noted the mortifying open-borders debacle in the California Republican Party. Michael Kamburowski, an Australian immigrant who served as the California Republican Party’s chief operating officer, resigned last summer after the SFChron reported that he had been “ordered deported in 2001, jailed in connection with the order, and [had a] $5 million wrongful arrest lawsuit pending against U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials.â€

State GOP official may have violated visa law
Carla Marinucci,Lance Williams, Chronicle Staff Writers
Friday, February 22, 2008

A Canadian hired by the California Republican Party to do political work on a coveted H-1B visa appears to be in violation of immigration law because he is also earning money from another employer, federal officials said this week.

Christopher Matthews, a Canadian citizen, was hired in 2007 as full-time deputy political director, with responsibility for handling campaign operations and information technology for the country's largest state Republican Party operation, U.S. Department of Labor records show. He currently works for the state GOP as a political coordinator, said Hector Barajas, spokesman for the California Republican Party.

The state Republican Party applied for an H-1B visa on behalf of Matthews to fill the job of "political consultant" and was granted a visa labor certification in March 2007.

The Canadian's three-year H-1B visa is valid until Sept. 9, 2010, government records show.

But Federal Election Commission records show that Matthews has earned nearly $6,000 in 2008 working for a different employer - the San Diego Republican Party.

Jonathan Buettner, spokesman for the San Diego GOP, said Matthews is a valued database expert employed there under a "TN" visa - a renewable one-year special visa for Canadian and Mexican professional workers created under the North American Free Trade Agreement. Matthews' TN visa expires on Nov. 3, passport records show.

"The permit allows him to consult with the party and be compensated for his area of expertise," strategic and data analysis, Buettner said.

But an official from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said immigration law is clear on the matter.

"Citizens of other countries who work here on non-immigrant visas can only use one kind at a time - and can only work for the employer who petitioned them," said Sharon Rummery, the San Francisco-based public information officer for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Violations of the terms of an H-1B visa, she said, can result in revocation of the visa.

Matthews, reached Friday, said he has done nothing wrong. "I've gone out of my way to do everything by the book - hired an immigration attorney and paid a ton of money" on permits and related documents to stay within the law, he said.

Immigration officials not only saw his two visas and work permits - but stamped them together in his passport, Matthews noted.

Indeed, in getting his NAFTA visa, "I went right up to customs and immigration and explained that I had an H-1B visa - and no one had any issue with it," he said.

But San Francisco-based immigration specialist attorney Sheila Quinlan concurred with federal officials that if Matthews is here under H-1B status, "it's a violation for him to work for a second employer under the guise of TN status."

Matthews was hired in California Republican Party circles by Michael Kamburowski, an Australian citizen who in 2007 was named the state GOP's chief operations officer.

Kamburowski resigned the $130,000-a-year post after The Chronicle reported he had sued federal officials who jailed him in 2004 for alleged visa violations and attempted to deport him.

The Chronicle reported this week that federal court records also show that Kamburowski had no valid visa or work permit - and no legal right to stay in the United States - when he worked for five years as a high-profile lobbyist for conservative icon Grover Norquist, a White House adviser.

California state GOP Chairman Ron Nehring last year defended Matthews' hiring on the H-1B visa, saying he "has a successful track record of working with the party for the last three years. ... He's one of the strongest campaigners I've ever met."

Nehring said Matthews "has wanted to move to America and become an American citizen ... and we embrace that."

While the hiring of Matthews under the H-1B visa for "specialized workers" is legal, the H-1B program - currently limited to 65,000 workers - is generally aimed at providing workers for jobs that presumably cannot be filled by Americans. Prospective employers must publicly advertise or post notice of their intentions to hire under such visas, labor guidelines state.

The H-1B program's greatest advocates are Silicon Valley technology firms, which have pushed for more visas so they can hire computer specialists from overseas.

E-mail the writers at cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com and lwilliams@sfchronicle.com.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... BV76FS.DTL