Move aside John Ashcroft. Last Sunday, Linda Chavez, a syndicated columnist chosen to be Bush's Secretary of Labor, acquired the unfortunate distinction of being the president-elect's most controversial cabinet designee. Chavez's appointment sank into uncertain waters after the Bush campaign confirmed that she had allowed Marta Mercado, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, to live in her home between 1991 and 1993. Chavez denied charges that Mercado was her employee, although she did admit that Mercado did "odd jobs on an irregular basis," and that she had given Mercado spending money from time to time. According to ABC News, federal law prohibits even giving housing to a known illegal immigrant.
In discussing their apprehensions about confirming Chavez, leading Democrats referred to the problems that President Clinton developed with his first two nominations for attorney general, Zo Baird and Judge Kimba Wood. Both Baird and Wood withdrew their candidacy for attorney general after each was found to have employed illegal immigrants. Just as many people wondered why Zo Baird, a corporate lawyer making over $500,000 a year would need to employ an illegal alien, so too may people ask what purpose Chavez had in sheltering an illegal alien, if not outright employing her.
If Chavez's syndicated columns can be interpreted as indicative of her beliefs; they can provide an explanation of Chavez's peculiar combination of political philosophies that may have been what led to the incident with Mercado. In her columns, Chavez is a strong conservative with regard to government programs. Even when talking about Al Gore's programs for helping more Americans become middle class, Chavez wrote, "if Al Gore has his way, more and more Americans will become dependent on the government, and will share even less of cost of the programs they demand." (9/12/00) In other columns, Chavez has attacked sexual harassment lawsuits, calling the defendants "crybabies." She has derided the notion that women face a glass ceiling when seeking promotion into the senior ranks of business, and has likened supporters of an increased minimum wage to Marxists.
Yet despite her conservatism, Chavez is in favor of immigration. In another one of her recent columns (4/4/00), Chavez credits immigrants, legal or otherwise, as one of the driving forces behind the new economy. In the column she goes on to ask, "Wouldn't it be better to change the immigration laws to allow more people to reside here legally than simply to turn a blind eye to those who are violating the laws now on the books?" And herein lies the Chavez dilemma. On the one hand, she has the admirable belief that hard-working immigrants deserve a place in American society. But when the immigrants run into difficulties (Mercado was an abused-wife), Chavez's conservative principles clash with her compassionate instincts. How can one help an immigrant in need, without resorting to government assistance? The result of Chavez's conflicting beliefs is a pattern of providing ad-hoc charity for immigrants, that at least in the case of Marta Mercado, pushed the boundaries of legality.
Mercado was just one of a string of "immigrant" projects that Ms. Chavez has devoted herself to over the years. In 1979, Chavez took Ngxia Bui, a Vietnamese immigrant and his brother, Nxan, into her home, as part of a Catholic charities program. Chavez helped Bui learn English (she is an outspoken proponent of English-only education), and helped him get accustomed to American culture. Chavez's desire to help immigrants outside of government assistance led her to provide funds for a private-school education to two Puerto Rican immigrants in New York city. She refers to them in a (7/18/00) column in which she despairs about the cycle of poverty that they seemed destined for.
Chavez's conflicting political philosophies would not have created barriers to her cabinet appointment, if only we had dealt with the immigration issue the last time it interfered with a president-elect's cabinet choice. Unfortunately the last Republican Congress entirely disagreed with Chavez on the contributions of immigrants to American society. The only major increase in the number of people allowed into the country by the 106th Congress was under the H-1B visa program. H-1B visas allow high-tech companies to "import" a set number of highly skilled immigrants to work in the high-tech field. Yet I don't remember the Statue of Liberty's plaque reading, "Give me your tired, your poor, your computer programmers."
Yesterday's problems of immigration have only become worse today. According to estimates from the Census Bureau, there are about 6 million illegal aliens currently residing in the U.S. That number increases by approximately 420,000 each year. These honest, hard-working people have been branded as criminals. Yet, they have just as much of a right to the American dream as the millions of people who came into this country in the last century, people who many of us call ancestors. American immigration policy should not condemn today's immigrants and those that give them assistance.
As for Linda Chavez, sadly, she is not qualified to be Secretary of Labor. That post requires someone who not only knows the law, but also knows how to change it when it is clearly unjust. Linda Chavez has proven that she does not know either thing.
