Thread: Senator Helps Mexicans Take Americans’ Jobs

Senator Helps Mexicans Take Americans’ Jobs

The chief of staff that Florida's governor appointed as U.S. Senator heads a law firm embroiled in several scandals, including securing visas for Mexican construction workers by persuading the State Department that the foreigners had special skills that Americans didn't.

Florida's newly appointed U.S. Senator, George LeMieux, hasn't even been sworn in and already multiple allegations of cronyism have infested his meteoric political rise in the Sunshine State. The 40-year-old largely unknown lawyer gained notoriety when Republican Governor Charlie Crist picked him to replace Mel Martinez, who retired before completing his term.

LeMieux was Crist's chief of staff and he's also the chairman of a Florida-based law firm that specializes in helping companies hire foreigners-who work for less money-replace American workers inside the U.S. An investigative reporter for a south Florida television station revealed that the new senator's firm secured dozens of visas for Mexicans to help construct a hotel and condominiums in an upscale beach neighborhood known as Bal Harbour.

As a result American sheet metal workers were left out of a job at a time of rising unemployment that included more than 2,000 sheet metal workers in south Florida. The new senator's firm represented a Mexican sheet metal company that wanted to bring its own workforce into the U.S. and to obtain visas, it fraudulently argued that America workers weren't available for the new project.

The type of visa that soon-to-be-Senator LeMieux (he gets sworn in this week) secured for the Mexicans is reserved for foreigners that possess unique skills unavailable in American workers. The State Department specifically states that the visas are issued only to "persons of extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics." Executives of major corporations could also qualify as well as those who possess highly specialized skills essential to the efficient operation of a firm. Mexican sheet metal workers clearly don't meet the criteria.

LeMieux's political connections also helped his law firm land a half a million-dollar contract to represent Florida's transportation department and a secret deal to negotiate a lucrative gambling contract with an Indian tribe that was subsequently found to be unconstitutional by the state's Supreme Court. Now those strong connections have landed him in the U.S. Senate.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2009/ ... icans-jobs

persuading the State Department that the foreigners had special skills that Americans didn't.

And what kind of special skills would those be? The special skill of working for real cheap, perhaps?

I feel ashamed to live in a state who has a kind of senator like this man. When are we going to have the guts to shout against all these people and demand they do not represent us?

Mexicans with "extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business or athetics"? Is this a kind of joke? Who has ever heard of any Mexican fitting any of these criteria?

We have plenty of Americans to excel in sny kind of these jobs.

Martinez left and another moron came to fit his 2-size shoes. Stupid and deshonest.

Shame on you Crist!

Meek's voting record seems to be Pro-ILLEGAL.

Meek criticizes LeMieux over firm's aid to foreign workers

Although George LeMieux said he had nothing to do with the case, likely Democratic Senate candidate Kendrick Meek blasted the interim senator for his firm's help to Mexican immigrant workers.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek joined union workers Tuesday in blasting incoming Republican Sen. George LeMieux over his law firm's role in bringing in Mexican laborers to build a high-rise hotel and condominiums in Miami.

LeMieux is chairman of Gunster Yoakley, a Tallahassee-based firm that helped secure visas for the foreign workers who claimed they had skills lacked by their American counterparts at a time of rising unemployment. LeMieux said he wasn't involved in the case.

About a dozen sheet metal workers met with Meek at his Miami Gardens office. Most raised their hands when asked if they were unemployed.

``If you have folks coming in from a foreign country when there are people here who have to pay their bills and have to pay their taxes and are overlooked, that's something that we need to work on,'' Meek said.

He added: ``Just because the governor decides to appoint his good friend and campaign manager to the U.S. Senate doesn't necessarily mean that we close our eyes on issues such as this.''

Gov. Charlie Crist appointed LeMieux, his former chief of staff and campaign manager, to fill the term left by retiring Sen. Mel Martinez. With Crist and Meek vying to be elected to the post in 2010, LeMieux's appointment immediately became an issue in the race.

LeMieux said he would resign Wednesday from the law firm to fulfill the Senate's restrictions on outside employment. He is scheduled to be sworn into office on Thursday.

``I'm not personally aware of all the details on the [immigration] matter, and I didn't bill any time on the matter,'' he said. ``I`m sure the legal work was done correctly.''

One of the union members said she wanted to set up a meeting with LeMeiux. Another member, 44-year-old Lamont Mosley, asked, ``What type of message are we sending to kids, telling them to get a higher education so we can bring people in to do your job, so we could send your job overseas? This is ridiculous. I served in the military. This should never happen. I was born and raised in Florida. I've been unemployed for over a year.''




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Comments (12)


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I remember this big outrage over the steel workers out of work in Florida, the union meeting was on the news, and this hotel was filled with Mexican visa holders and illegals, while dozens of steel workers hadn't worked in over a year!

LeMieux said he would resign Wednesday from the law firm to fulfill the Senate's restrictions on outside employment. He is scheduled to be sworn into office on Thursday.
``I'm not personally aware of all the details on the [immigration] matter, and I didn't bill any time on the matter,'' he said. ``I`m sure the legal work was done correctly.''

May I ask what specifically the responsibilities of the chairman entailed if he apparently has no clue what the firm was doing?