What’s Next for Meg Whitman?

California’s gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman may have knowingly hired Mexican illegal alien Nicandra “Nicky” Diaz Santillan to work as a domestic in her home. Glorida Allred has jumped into vigorously defend Diaz while Whitman denies her culpability and charges her opponent Jerry Brown with using dirty tricks to fuel the whole ugly mess. That Whitman employed an illegal alien ranks about a one on a scale between one and 10. Among wealthy Californians, a high percentage of them employ housekeepers, gardeners and pool men who are illegal aliens. Equally unsurprising is that Alldred, a liberal Democrat who has donated to Brown’s previous campaigns, would go after Whitman with a vengeance. In 2003 with only weeks remaining in California’s special gubernatorial election Allred, representing Rhonda Miller, charged Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger with sexual harassment. Miller’s suit was ultimately dismissed. Assuming the charges against Whitman are accurate, and her husband Griffith Harsh’s hand written note to Diaz on a 2003 Social Security letter to “please check this” indicate that they may be, the bigger issue is what Allred is not talking about. Namely, Allred has conveniently avoided discussing Diaz’s own criminal behavior and how easily Whitman could have averted what may be a fatal blow to her floundering campaign. Entering the United States illegally and falsifying social security numbers, which may also result in identity theft, are federal crimes, a fact that Allred ignores. Diaz also presented a fraudulent California drivers’ license, another felony. Even more important is how easily Whitman, and other would-be employers of illegal aliens, could have averted this potential disaster: E-Verify. Throughout her campaign, Whitman has been adamantly against E-Verify. In an August interview, Whitman said: “What I’ve said is that E-Verify is in existence many companies use it, but it does have a false negative and a false positive rate.” Whitman is flat out wrong. Of the employees run though the system, 93 percent are verified within 5 seconds! Another 1.2 percent were verified within 24 hours with no additional action required of either the employee or the employer Of the 5.8 percent who receive tentative non-confirmation letters are illegal aliens. Only 0.5 percent contacted were U.S. citizens or authorized foreign workers who according to the Social Security Administration had errors in their database. Many of those errors were ones that the workers themselves had made, such as a woman not notifying the Social Security Administration SSA of name change after a marriage. Whitman certainly wishes that she had run Diaz through E-Verify. The quick and simple process would have saved her a mountain of pre-election headaches. The Diaz case has two major unresolved issues. First, will Diaz be deported as the law requires? Second, assuming Whitman is complicit, will she be fined? Although the fine for first time offenders ($3,200) is insignificant to a multimillionaire like Whitman, it would be an important symbolic gesture that might send a message to others not to hire illegal aliens.