The placement agency that California GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman used to hire Nicky Diaz as a housekeeper back in 2000 has issued a statement to Talking Points Memo, stating that they “did everything that was legally required and followed standard procedures at the time.”
Diaz according to records provided by the Whitman campaign, falsely stated that she was able to work in the United States. Town & Country Resources concurred with the Whitman camp that Diaz had been untruthful.
But Diaz and her high-profile lawyer Gloria Allred alleged that Whitman and her husband knew about Diaz’s immigration status. Whitman admitted that her husband may have signed off on a letter for the Social Security Administration which said that the Social Security number Diaz provided did not match with her name in their records.
“Since we believed her to be legal, I would have had no reason to suspect that she would not have filled it in and done what was needed to secure her benefits,” Whitman’s husband Dr. Griff Harsh said. “It is important to note what this letter actually says: ‘this letter makes no statement about your employee’s immigration status’.”
Allred also said that Diaz made references to her inability to leave the country, and that Whitman and her husband knew about her immigration status before the housekeeper was fired in 2009.
The full statement from Town & Country Resources owners Jens and Carrie Hillen is as follows:
Town & Country Resources has a more than 25-year commitment to matching qualified, dependable caretakers to families throughout the Bay Area. My wife and I purchased Town & Country Resources in 2008, years after this situation developed in 2000. We take the privacy of our clients very seriously and connote provide specifics on client cases. I can confirm that Meg Whitman and her husband were clients in 2000, and Nicky Diaz was referred to their family at that time.
Records show that as an agency we did everything that was legally required and followed standard procedures at the time. As already reported, Nicky Diaz did fill out our standard candidate questionnaire. In that questionnaire, Nicky indicated that she was legally able to work in the United States. Further, Nicky provided us and our client with documents that our client would need to complete the I-9 form as was their legal obligation as an employer.
Since 2006, every Town & Country referred candidate undergoes a rigorous background check, verified by a third party. We will not tolerate anyone who falsely represents themselves and take great pride in referring only the finest caretakers to our clients.
Sincerley,
Jens Hillen and Carrie Hillen
TOWN & COUNTRY RESOURCES
Meanwhile, a conservative anti-illegal immigration group has called for both Whitman and Diaz to be arrested for violations of immigration law.
“To allow Whitman to avoid a trial on this matter would be the same as allowing O.J. Simpson to avoid trial because he said he didn’t do it before he was arrested,” William Gheen, president and spokesman for Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, told TPMMuckraker on Thursday.
