Thread: Healey spouse backed illegals' hiring

http://www.boston.com/news/local/politi ... ls_hiring/
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IMMIGRATION
Healey spouse backed illegals' hiring
By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff | October 25, 2006

A presidential council that includes the husband of Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey called on President Bush last summer to resist harsh measures aimed at discouraging the hiring of illegal immigrants, even as Healey campaigned for tough policies against undocumented workers.

Sean Healey joined his colleagues at the July meeting of the President's Export Council in agreeing to tell the president that the role of illegal immigrants is a "special and important part of our economic growth" and implore him not to implement policies that would disrupt their presence.

"Removing undocumented workers from an economy with near full employment would be devastating and counterproductive," the 47-member council wrote Bush. "Documented and undocumented immigrants are filing the void. They continue to fill jobs Americans, for various reasons, are not doing."

Healey, the GOP nominee for governor, has made curbing benefits for illegal immigrants a central focus of her campaign. She is calling for severe penalties for companies that hire illegal immigrants, because, she says, those employers are hurting the state's economy. At one point she called for throwing those workers out of the country, but has since moderated that position.

"Every job they give to an illegal immigrant is a job that could been done by a Massachusetts worker," states one of the 50 proposals that Healey is vowing to push as governor.

She also said that a more welcoming policy would serve to bring more illegal immigrants to the state. "Turning a blind eye to illegal hiring practices only encourages illegal immigrants to locate in Massachusetts," her proposal reads. "By enforcing tough penalties on businesses that hire illegal aliens, we will discourage illegal activity in the Commonwealth and lower costs."

Healey has attacked Democratic rival Deval Patrick over his support for driver's licenses and instate tuition rates for illegal immigrants. She also wants to bar noncitizens from applying for public housing, although federal courts have prohibited state officials from requiring proof of citizenship.

Yesterday, her campaign brushed aside Sean Healey's position on immigration as a member of the Export Council. Her campaign manager said Kerry Healey is focused on Patrick.

"Sean Healey isn't running for governor," said Healey's campaign manager, Tim O'Brien. "The real debate on immigration should be between Kerry Healey and Deval Patrick, since he is way too liberal for Massachusetts by supporting driver's licenses and in-state tuition for illegal immigrants."

While he has remained in the background, Sean Healey, the chief executive and chairman of Affiliated Managers Group, is a key financier of his wife's candidacy. The couple has relied on the wealth he has accumulated from his asset management firm, estimated to be more than $100 million, to bankroll a good part of her campaign, which is expected to top $10 million.

Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, asserted that Kerry Healey's position is driven by politics.

"The differences in the position in the Healey household on immigration are ironic," he said. "You have one side that is looking after the bottom line and realizes the value of the immigrant work and the other side of the household realizes the value to scaring voters to the polls by using the immigrant worker."

In its letter, approved by the 25 members who were present, the Export Council is asking Bush to open up "a path to legalization" that it says will "address the reality that millions of undocumented immigrants are now living and working" in the United States and provide "a solution, outside of deportation or amnesty, to deal with the undocumented already here."

Last November, Kerry Healey said that illegal immigrants "need to be returned to the countries from which they came." But last May, she moderated her position, suggesting that the government should identify those who are here illegally but "have the potential to become good, productive American citizens" and to allow them to stay under some circumstances.

This fall, as she attempted to draw sharp differences with Patrick, Healey focused again on immigration.

"Employers only hire people who are here illegally because they think they can get away with it," Healey said during a bus tour of Southeastern Massachusetts last month. "Certainly, imposing higher fines and enforcing those fines would discourage that practice."

Bush appointed Sean Healey, whose firm's revenues reached nearly $1 billion last year, to the council last May as one of its 28 private-sector members. The council includes five US senators and five representatives and members of the president's Cabinet, including the secretary of state.



© Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Could she be saying all this just to get elected?