Wilson Unsure Former Housekeeper Was Illegal : Politics: He says records are lacking and he doesn’t know status of some ex-employees. He admits he may owe Social Security.

Gov. Pete Wilson, appearing frustrated at his inability to fully explain a damaging political controversy, told reporters Friday that he is still uncertain whether he has ever hired an illegal immigrant housekeeper or whether he might possibly have employed more than one.

Wilson acknowledged that in the late 1970s, while he was mayor of San Diego, he and his ex-wife hired a housekeeper from Mexico who may have been working in the United States illegally.

He also said he may have committed a “serious dereliction” in not paying Social Security taxes for the employee.

But he said he is having trouble ascertaining the facts because his memory is vague, the housekeeper is not cooperating and there are no employment records.

“We really do not know what the facts are,” Wilson said in discussing the issue for the first time publicly. “We were under the impression she was a citizen. . . . Clearly, if we had known (she was working illegally), we would not have employed this woman.”

The governor said he has initiated an investigation of all his former domestic employees. A longtime friend who will head the review, attorney John Davies of San Diego, estimated that there are two to five former housekeepers whose work status is still not known.

Wilson spoke in a soft and raspy voice, demonstrating how seriously he considers the issue by violating a doctor’s orders to avoid strenuous speaking after minor throat surgery three weeks ago.

The governor was unruffled in answering tough questions that could prove pivotal to the presidential campaign he hopes to launch officially later this month. To a room packed with state and national reporters, he also issued a firm warning to the opponents he suspects of leaking the controversy to the press by saying that it will not prevent him from seeking the White House or from continuing his high-profile fight against illegal immigration.

“One thing that I want to make clear is that those who are skulking in the shadows feeding this information, if they are entertaining the hope . . . that this would in some way silence the debate on immigration, they are woefully mistaken,” Wilson said.

Wilson said he first learned about the possibility that he employed an illegal immigrant housekeeper last month after a call to his office from his former wife, Betty Hosie. Hosie, who was divorced from Wilson in 1983, said in a statement that she wanted to alert the governor that she did not pay Social Security taxes for the housekeeper, Josefina Klag.

When Klag was contacted by a Wilson aide, she said that she was not issued a green card to work legally in the United States until March, 1979. Klag said she started working for the Wilsons about a year earlier, in 1978.

But the governor said others--his former wife and a family friend--have indicated that the woman might not have worked at his home until after March, 1979, when she was apparently a legal U.S. worker.

Wilson also emphasized it was not illegal to unknowingly employ an undocumented worker before 1986. His staff also said there was no requirement employers ask for proof of legal status.

Davies said that reconstructing the facts has also been made difficult because of the uncertain memories and conflicting stories.

He said Klag has declined to provide any documentation of her legal status. And immigration officials have told the governor’s office that they cannot obtain the information without Klag’s permission.

Davies also said he was unaware of information reported by The Times on Friday indicating that Klag was issued her green card in March, 1979, because of her marriage to a U.S. citizen. According to records in San Diego County Superior Court, Klag separated from her America husband, Kirk C. Klag, less than three weeks after they married in December, 1978.

Klag’s current employer, Becky Irwin in La Jolla, is a friend of Wilson’s former wife who told The Times that she referred the housekeeper to the Wilsons. She could not recall, however, whether it was in 1978 or 1979.

Irwin also said that the housekeeper goes by the names Josefina and Josefa, Klag and Delgado.

If Klag worked in the Wilsons’ home for three years before the couple’s legal separation in 1981--as Klag told the governor’s office--Davies estimated that Wilson probably owes about $3,000 in Social Security taxes, penalties and interest.

Under certain conditions, however, Davies said that the Wilsons would not owe any Social Security taxes. As a result, he said, he is not certain how much the governor does owe, if anything.

Since the controversy was first reported Thursday, Wilson critics have blasted the governor for being a hypocrite by campaigning against illegal immigrants when he had apparently employed one in his home. During his reelection campaign last year, Wilson was an outspoken proponent of Proposition 187, the controversial ballot measure approved by voters to stop health and education benefits to illegal immigrants.

The criticism continued Friday, some of it from one of Wilson’s Republican presidential opponents. “It was unfortunate for Gov. Wilson since he has made so much out of illegal immigration,” Lamar Alexander, a former Tennessee governor, said in an interview.

The scandal also spread to the national airwaves, where comedians and talk show hosts ridiculed the development. New York’s irreverent radio personality, Don Imus, parodied the governor on his nationally broadcast program Friday morning. And Jay Leno told jokes about Wilson Thursday on “The Tonight Show.”

“He had no idea she was illegal,” Leno joked. “He said he thought everybody’s maid spoke Spanish, had no Social Security number and hid when the doorbell rang.”

Despite the controversy, Wilson said he did not believe the issue will be a major problem for his presidential campaign because voters will understand that if he did employ an illegal worker, it was unknowingly.

“I think fair-minded people should make a distinction between an offense that is knowing and one that is unknowing,” he said.

Wilson also said he does not believe the controversy has compromised his position on the issue.

“I am not leading a fight against undocumented people,” he said. “I am leading a fight against the federal government.”

Still, Wilson was left in the embarrassing position of having to admit his vulnerability on the illegal immigrant issue, even though he has watched the same issue damage several other political careers recently and he is about to launch a presidential campaign using illegal immigration as a cornerstone issue.

Wilson said he thought his background was checked last year by his reelection campaign staff. Based on that assumption, he told reporters last fall he never employed an undocumented worker when he was asked the question following GOP Senate candidate Mike Huffington’s confession he had hired an illegal immigrant as a nanny.

Wilson said Friday that he learned recently that his campaign staff had only checked the domestic workers he employed back to 1986, when federal law made it a crime to hire an illegal immigrant. He said his campaign staff never talked to his former wife to check for potential problems.

“Some of you have asked about other household help we’ve had over the years and, unfortunately, I don’t know the answer to that question,” Wilson said. “But I’m eager to put this issue to rest.”

Times staff writers Michael Granberry, Sebastian Rotella and Chris Kraul in San Diego and Patrick McDonnell and Bill Stall in Los Angeles contributed to this story.