Royce Latest With Old Tie to Illegal Immigrant : Politics: Congressman says his case is different because he hired a citizen and was unaware the man’s wife was undocumented.

Orange County Congressman Ed Royce emphatically proclaimed on Wednesday that he did nothing wrong.

The Fullerton Republican did not hire an illegal immigrant during the 1980s. He employed her husband, a U.S. citizen, and he did not know at first that the man’s wife was here illegally.

But Royce had inadvertently become the latest politician, the others including Gov. Pete Wilson, who have attacked illegal immigration and then been found to have a past relationship with it.

During an era when illegal immigration is considered by some to be one of the country’s leading social and economic problems, Latino political activists said Royce’s past connection to an undocumented worker offers another reminder that illegal immigrants are a part of the fabric of American life.

In the governor’s case, he recently acknowledged that 17 years ago his then-wife employed an illegal immigrant and did not pay the maid’s Social Security taxes.

Wilson had led the fight for Proposition 187, California’s anti-illegal immigration measure, and is now set to formally announce his bid for the GOP presidential nomination.

A similar revelation about former Rep. Michael Huffington (R-Santa Barbara) derailed his effort to unseat U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein last year, even though similar questions were raised about Feinstein’s own domestic help.

But Royce said his circumstance is unlike the others’ because he did not hire an illegal immigrant.

He is not the subject of any investigation, Royce said, nor does he feel the need to review his personal records to make sure he did not violate the 1986 federal law that included sanctions against employers who hire illegal immigrants.

“I hired Bill Bowen,” Royce said of the man who worked for his family and has become a friend. “I paid Bill Bowen. Bill Bowen did occasional work for me off and on. After I had hired Bill Bowen, America (his wife) assisted him in some of his work which he did.”

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Royce maintained he did not know America Bowen was an illegal immigrant.

“He invited my wife and I to their wedding (in 1987). . . After the wedding, they came to me and told me of her situation and asked me for a letter,” Royce said, referring to the first of two letters of recommendation he would write on her behalf.

America Bowen, now 35, sought Royce’s help to qualify for the amnesty program for undocumented workers because she entered the country after the 1981 cutoff date. However, she was eligible to become a legal resident following her marriage to Bowen.

Royce, who is a member of the House task force studying new legislation to curb illegal immigration, said there is no contradiction in his position.

“I didn’t know she was illegal. I knew Bill Bowen; my family knew Bill Bowen,” Royce said.

Immigrant rights activists disagree.

“I think that for an elected official to purportedly have a thorough and sophisticated understanding of undocumented immigrants, and then to claim ignorance of an undocumented worker in his household, is a strain on credibility,” said John Palacio of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Santa Ana Latino activist Arturo Montez also refused to accept Royce’s explanation of events.

“Here they are, trying to reform something, and how can you reform something if you are the ones taking advantage of the situation?” Montez asked.

In Royce’s defense, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) argued that a decade ago illegal immigration was not perceived to be the problem that it is today as a strain on public services.

“What somebody did 10 or 15 years ago in terms of hiring illegal immigrants is irrelevant now,” said Rohrabacher, adding he never hired an illegal immigrant. “What’s important is what stands people are taking now.”

The four remaining members of the Orange County congressional delegation, all conservative Republicans strongly opposed to illegal immigration, also said they had never hired undocumented workers.

After learning about Wilson’s former maid earlier this week, Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), who also is a presidential candidate, said his middle-class status prevented him from hiring domestic help. Wilson’s political problem over the maid, he added, was one of the governor’s “disadvantages” of being a millionaire.

Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside) said illegal immigrants should never be hired, as federal law now dictates.

“I don’t think they should be (hired), and we ought to send them back,” Packard said. “And those that are here legally to work, we ought to send them back . . . when the work is done.”