Why So Many Women Political Leaders Fear Immigration Law Enforcement

When I was working on my degree in creative writing at the University of Texas at El Paso in the early 1970s, an instructor, not long removed from the State of New York, once suggested a subject for writing projects.  How about  maids? he asked.  "Have you noticed that nearly everyone in El Paso has a maid? In New York if someone has a maid, they probably live on Park Avenue or some other rich section of the city." As an immigration officer, I had knowledge that would have embarrassed the instructor.  I could have told him that nearly all the maids in El Paso were working illegally in violation of immigration laws.

Up to the early 1960s, the INS (forerunner to ICE, a branch of the DHS now charged with enforcing immigration laws) still "worked" illegal maids.  Before the 1960s we used to investigate information regarding employment of an illegal maid in a household.  Sometimes we would nab them without information while they were working in the front yards of their employers' homes. By the mid 1960s, the INS had practically quit working illgal maids.  There were two reasons: first, they were low priority and second, they nearly always caused a big scene because the employers were so to desperately dependent upon them. Illegal maids were essential to maintaining their facade of an exalted lifestyle, A single woman could lose a few days work while trying to find another maid. A legal one would cost five times what she paid the illegal one, and what's more, be less dependable and subservient.  They usually would up hiring the same one, or another illegal one, within a few days.  I cannot recall an employer of an illegal maid ever being fined or prosecuted for that reason alone. 

 Many of these illegal maids were in possession of so-called border crossing cards (Form I-186) that permitted them to cross legally in the U.S. for shopping or visiting for a period not to exceed 72 hours.  However, it was one of the most abused privileges in the history of American immigration laws and a border crossing card was essential for most illegal maids.  A few, however, waded the river or entered by walking across the line in New Mexico .  When I was in the Army, I can remember  low-ranking married enlisted men of Fort Bliss, near El Paso, who lived off post bragged of having maids. These maids migrate to Juarez from small towns and large cities some distance from the border and a job that includes room, board and a small salary is manna from heaven compared to what they had in their impoverished villages in Mexico. The INS discontinued the Form I-186 in favor of a regular immigration visa soem time around the turn of the century (around 2000 AD).

By the 1970s, the hiring of illegal maids had become common,,not solely along the border, but across the nation. That was when we started hearing stories of uppity women in politics having to withdraw their names from nomination to important government positions due to being exposed as employers of illegal aliens.  Bill Clinton's first two nominees for the position of Attorney General had to withdraw due to having illegal maids.They were Zoe Baird and District Judge Kimba Wood of New York.  Linda Chavez, once a prominent Republican politician quickly sank into oblivion when it was discovered that she had a female working for in her home that was illegally in the country. Chavez claimed she was just "helping" the lady who was having some domestic problems with a spouse. but the public did not buy that spin.

Most women in the United States that are actively involved in politics have a morbid fear of an immigration clean-up like the one that occurred in the U.S. in 1954.  One of the major reasons is that so many of them exploit illegal immigration by hiring illegal maids to run their households.  The chores of illegal maids include making beds,  cooking, baby and being a nanny for the children of Middle class Americans, especially single women run households.  Many of these female politicians are living beyond their means and having a lowly-paid illegal maid is essential to freeing her up to be active in politics or active in the workplace outside the home--as a high-paid employee, or as the owner of a small business.  Thus, the illegal maid is essential to casting an image that would belie her economic means if the truth were known.