The conservative base – hunting governor of Masachusetts, when he decided it was smart to bully the roughly 150,000 plus illegal workers in Massachusetts, forgot to do his homework. The local newspaper did it for him.
The Boston Globe ran a story today titled “Troopers had relied on illegal workers, Yet they may enforce immigration laws”
Governor Mitt Romney is pushing to give state troopers the authority to enforce federal immigration laws so they can arrest those who are here illegally. But records indicate the State Police has relied for years on a company to clean its barracks and headquarters that has employed scores of undocumented immigrants. A Globe review of payroll data from National Facility Services of Boylston found that more than 80 percent of the 192 unionized maintenance workers employed there in 2004 had questionable or bogus Social Security numbers. The company has received more than $2.2 million in state contracts since 2000. National Facility Services said it has cleaned State Police facilities for at least a decade….The company also maintains the Internal Revenue Service center in Andover.
The article goes on (excerpted):
The Globe analyzed the data last week after Romney proposed seeking the controversial agreement with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deputize state troopers to arrest undocumented immigrants. The Globe ran the Social Security numbers of the National Facility Services workers through three private databases that compile valid numbers. Of the 192 workers reviewed, 162 appeared to have bogus or questionable numbers.
At least 18 of the workers on the records reviewed had Social Security numbers that belonged to dead people, including three deceased people born in the 1800s. One undocumented worker from Brazil, who spoke to the Globe on condition of anonymity, said National Facility Services is well-known within the Brazilian community, and that many of his co-workers also are undocumented.
The worker said he went to work immediately at the company after arriving here six years ago, using a Social Security number passed on to him by a friend who was moving back to Brazil.
Raymond P. Howell , spokesman for National Facility Services, issued a statement yesterday that the company is “collateral damage in the political battle over illegal immigration….Illegal aliens have historically been a large part of the commercial cleaning industry, but National has been a model and leader in fighting that trend.”
Last month, a Globe story disclosed that on nine recent state and municipal public works projects — from dormitory construction at the University of Massachusetts to the building of a new Middlesex County Jail — more than a third of 242 workers on weekly payroll lists appeared to lack legitimate Social Security numbers.