Wilson Hiring of Illegal Immigrant Is Reported : Politics: He did not pay Social Security and was not aware of housekeeper’s status, governor’s office says.

Gov. Pete Wilson’s office acknowledged Wednesday that Wilson and his former wife hired an illegal immigrant housekeeper and failed to pay her Social Security taxes while he was mayor of San Diego about 16 years ago.

The governor’s office told the Washington Post that the housekeeper was employed part time and that Wilson and his wife did not inquire about her legal status when she was hired in late 1978 or early 1979. Wilson’s office also said the woman received a green card shortly after she was hired.

There was no federal law against hiring an undocumented worker until a provision was passed in 1986. Employers were still required, however, to pay Social Security taxes.

Wilson, who has made illegal immigration a cornerstone of his expected bid for President, was in New York on Wednesday night and declined to take questions on the matter when asked by a Times reporter. In Sacramento, senior members from the governor’s office and at his campaign headquarters were sequestered in a meeting on the issue late Wednesday and refused to answer repeated inquiries.

In a statement confirmed by The Times, however, Wilson said he was unaware of the housekeeper’s status until his ex-wife called the governor’s office late last month and expressed concern that taxes had not been paid for the woman, who was from Mexico.

“While I have no independent verification of facts reported to me, I can categorically state that I have never knowingly employed an illegal immigrant and never intentionally failed to make payment of the employer’s contribution to Social Security for an employee,” Wilson said in the statement.

It also added that the governor and his former wife plan to repay any outstanding taxes “fully and expeditiously.”

The Post also reported that the governor’s office released a statement from Wilson’s former wife, Betty Hosie, in which she assumed responsibility for the matter.

“I employed (her), my husband did not,” Hosie said in the statement. “I paid her. My husband did not. The house was my responsibility, not his. He rarely even saw (her) before he moved out of the house in 1981.”

After separating in 1981, Wilson and Hosie were divorced. Hosie reportedly continued to employ the housekeeper until 1992.

The New York Times identified the housekeeper in today’s editions as Josefina Klag of Tijuana.

The issue is certain to prove embarrassing for Wilson as he prepares to make a formal announcement this month that he will run for the White House in 1996. Wilson has made it clear that illegal immigration would be a major issue in his presidential campaign as he repeated his call to halt public services for illegal immigrants and to crack down at the border.

The issue played a prominent role in Wilson’s 1994 reelection campaign when he was a leading champion of Proposition 187, the successful ballot measure that sought to deny illegal immigrants access to public education and health benefits. The measure is now under review in the courts.

The disclosure about Wilson recalls a major campaign story last year in which Republican Mike Huffington’s U.S. Senate campaign was marred by the disclosure that the candidate and his wife employed a illegal immigrant nanny for more than four years, ending shortly before Huffington announced his Senate campaign in 1991.

Unlike Wilson, Huffington acknowledged that he continued to employ the worker even though he knew that she was not a legal resident and that her employment was in violation of the federal law that took effect in 1986.

At the time, in the final weeks of the 1994 campaign, Wilson aides responded to questions by saying the governor had never employed an illegal immigrant.

The governor reportedly asked a longtime friend and adviser, John Davies of San Diego, to investigate the questions about his former housekeeper after Hosie reported the matter to Wilson’s office March 29.

An assistant to Davies subsequently interviewed the former housekeeper and Hosie. Afterward, Davies prepared a memo for the governor estimating that about $3,000 in taxes, interest and penalties are owed to the federal government.

The memo concluded that Wilson and his former wife did not violate a California law that was in effect in 1979 prohibiting an employer from knowingly hiring an illegal immigrant.

Bill Press, chairman of the California Democratic Party, responded to the news about Wilson’s housekeeper Wednesday night by saying, “Whatever the excuse happens to be, it astounds me.”

Although their cases are substantially different, Press sought to link the disclosures by Wilson and Huffington. “The twin cheerleaders for Proposition 187 are guilty of the same sin they were trying to outlaw,” Press said.

Press said the Wilson incident “proves he’s the biggest hypocrite in the history of California politics. He’s obviously a man with no principles, no shame and no memory.”

Wednesday night in New York, Wilson attended the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s annual dinner. With the governor recovering from throat surgery, Wilson’s wife, Gayle, read a speech on his behalf calling for tough new national policies to combat “the plague of domestic and international terrorism.”

Wilson also announced his support for President Clinton’s Iranian trade embargo.

“There is no political, no ideological justification for terrorism from the right or from the left,” Gayle Wilson said. “There is no room for dialogue or debate.”

Wilson said the federal government must devote significantly more resources to combatting domestic terrorism in the wake of last month’s bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.

“If the nation’s justice and law enforcement agencies need additional intelligence-gathering apparatus, which can be utilized within constitutional limits, then by all means, let’s make them available,” Gayle Wilson said. “And let’s do so without timidity and without apology.”

However, Wilson appeared to take a hard line on Clinton’s policies in the Middle East, even as he announced his support of the ban of all U.S. trade with Iran.

“Diplomacy must be more than a Band-Aid,” Gayle Wilson said. “We must build Free World coalitions with our allies--as during the Gulf War--to resist naked aggression and terrorism.”

Wilson was on hand at the dinner to receive the center’s National Leadership Award for what was described as his support for Israel and the Jewish people over the course of his public career.

Times staff writers Helaine Olen in New York and Max Vanzi and George Skelton in Sacramento contributed to this story.