Lawyer: Whitman 'exploited' illegal-immigrant housekeeper

Mercury News
By Lisa Fernandez, Ken McLaughlin and Josh Richman

A lawyer for Meg Whitman's former housekeeper said the Republican candidate knew the woman was likely an undocumented immigrant for years and only fired her after she launched her campaign for governor.

Attorney Gloria Allred said today that the housekeeper, Nicky Diaz, was "exploited, disrespected, humiliated and emotionally and financially abused" by Whitman, the billionaire former eBay CEO who is running against Democrat Jerry Brown.

In an emotional appearance at a news conference in Los Angeles, Diaz said Whitman had callously dismissed her because she feared it would hurt her campaign. "She treated me as if I was not a human being," she said.

Allred said at the same news conference that the Social Security Administration sent Whitman a letter dated April 22, 2003, saying the Social Security number provided by the housekeeper did not match the name on file. Diaz said she saw that letter when taking out the trash, but that Whitman and her husband never asked about her immigration status after receiving it.

Whitman, however, told reporters during an appearance at Cisco Systems in San Jose that she had received no notification from any government agency of any discrepancy between the Social Security number and the name.

"We never received that letter or that notification," she said, adding the housekeeper was hired through an employment agency that she relied on to check the worker's information. The Whitman campaign said the employment agency's form contained Social Security and driver's license numbers.

"I feel bad for her, she's being manipulated, I think, and I'm sorry for that," she said. "Everything Gloria Allred is saying is a lie."

Whitman said she fired the woman as soon as she said in June 2009 that she was in the country illegally. "No one could've been more stunned than I was," Whitman said.

Whitman says this underscores the need for an eVerify system to check workers' documentation. She said she didn't disclose the situation herself while on the campaign trail because she didn't want to make a public example of someone who had been so close to her family.

Asked what should happen to the woman now, Whitman said that's up to federal immigration authorities.

Because Diaz now could face deportation by coming forward, Allred called Diaz's decision to speak out "the most courageous decision I've seen in 35 years of practicing law.''

Allred said she was only recently contacted by Diaz, who got her name from another attorney's referral.

The Whitman campaign tried to blunt the impact of Allred's news conference by holding its own a half-hour earlier and releasing Diaz's employment form.

"What's a California governor's race without Gloria Allred inserting herself?" said campaign senior adviser Rob Stutzman.

He said he found it "really curious" that the news conference was held the day after Whitman performed well in a debate with Brown, who Stutzman said is a "personal friend" of Allred and a campaign donor.

"The timing is curious," he said. "This is the post-debate smoke bomb."

Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-new ... ck_check=1