Immigrant Labor a Legitimate Concern

In her own words, Linda Chavez was the victim of a “search and destroy” operation.

Let’s review the devastation wrought upon her.

First, she’s not going to be the U.S. secretary of Labor. A prediction: She’ll get over that.

Second, the head of the media syndicate that distributes her column (that’s her job in real life) says the number of newspapers running it might climb from 50 to 400. Another prediction: It won’t be that many.

Third, her speaking fee on the conservative circuit likely will go up, now that, as the syndicate head says, “she’s become a household name.”

Fourth, she’ll forever be known as a woman who had an illegal immigrant living in her home.

In other words, Chavez may have overstated things a bit when she said she’s been destroyed. She’ll soldier on, despite conceding that for two years she housed a Guatemalan woman in the early 1990s and gave her several hundred dollars every few weeks. The grateful Guatemalan did occasional household chores and ran errands, but both she and Chavez say they never had an employer-employee relationship.

I’m willing to believe that, common sense to the contrary. Even after hearing the arguments about why Chavez should have withdrawn her name, I say she should have argued her case before the Senate. Nor should the details as known today have disqualified her from the Cabinet.

After all, don’t all high-income families have noncitizens doing domestic chores for them in exchange for a few bucks? Aren’t we naive to pretend that isn’t the way of the world, given the cheap immigrant labor available to our well-heeled citizens? No big deal, right?

Guess what? Not everybody thinks like that.

High Cost of Cheap Help

I talked Thursday to two women who work at separate Orange County nanny services. One runs her company; the other is a placement counselor.

Although Chavez’s house guest wasn’t a nanny, she represented exactly the kind of threat that drives the women nuts--namely, one who would perform household chores for below-market wages.

While many Americans relish that kind of relationship, the licensed nanny and housekeeping businesses do not.

“I know that’s how it is,” says the placement counselor. “It’s up to the government to catch them [nonresident workers], and they don’t seem to care that much about it. We see people standing on the side of the road wanting day work. This industry is full of them.

“We get calls all the time from [prospective employers] who want someone to work 14 hours a day for $150 a week.”

That contrasts, she says, with the rate in Orange County for a licensed, experienced legal resident that can go as high as $400 a week. Her company runs background checks on its applicants and tries to verify their residency status.

The owner of the other company (neither woman wanted to be identified) says her company asks job applicants for identification, such as a California driver’s license, to check their residency status. They also check personal backgrounds, including previous residences in other states.

She says she isn’t angered to learn that Chavez housed an illegal immigrant and is willing to give her the benefit of the doubt as to her motive. But she said that such arrangements take potential employment away from legal residents.

The placement counselor wasn’t quite so charitable toward Chavez. “I don’t think anyone should be in government if they’re hiring illegals. If they’re breaking the law, why should they be part of the government?”

That’s the sentiment that ended Chavez’s brush with Cabinethood.

Weep not for her. Destroyed? Hardly. As for the Guatemalan woman, she later married and now is a U.S. citizen.

A happy ending. Nobody loses.

Nobody, that is, except for some unknown woman in the early 1990s living in the Beltway who might have been able to snag a job at a decent wage in the Chavez household.

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at The Times’ Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com.