Trump Commerce Secretary Pick Fired Undocumented Employee Before Hearing

Meeting of technology leaders - Commerce Secretary nominee Wilbur Ross Donald Trump transition meetings, New York, USA - 14 Dec 2016 (Rex Features via AP Images)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary said he fired an undocumented household employee prior to his confirmation hearing Wednesday.

Wilbur Ross told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Wednesday that as part of his confirmation process he had asked everyone he employed to produce paperwork verifying their immigration status, “in order to verify the legality of the employment.”

He continued by saying that “this one employee was unable to and therefore was terminated.”

The confirmation processes of two of President Bill Clinton’s nominees for attorney general, Zoë Baird and Kimba Wood, were derailed one after the other in 1993 following revelations that they had hired undocumented immigrants as nannies in what became known as “Nannygate.”

Reuters reported Tuesday that Ross, dubbed the “King of Bankruptcy” by some for his pattern of buying up troubled companies, had eliminated 2,700 U.S.-based jobs since 2004 as a result of his decisions to move various companies’ production overseas.

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: