Meg Whitman's Housekeeper Fired, Treated Like "Garbage"

by Danny Rangel · 2010-09-30 08:00:00 -0400
Topics:

California Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has vowed to crack down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants. As it turns, out she is one of those employers, and a rather unpleasant one from the point of view of one former employee.

Nicky Diaz Santillan, an undocumented immigrant who was fired by Whitman after nine years as her family's housekeeper and nanny, is now in the process of filing a lawsuit against the Republican nominee. In an emotional press conference Thursday, Santillan described how, merely a few months before her campaign for governor officially began, Whitman terminated her employment.

In case you missed it, Whitman's reportedly unsympathetic and cold-hearted demeanor is quite striking. "You have never seen me, and I have never seen you," Whitman said at the termination. "I cannot help you. And don't say anything to my children. I will tell them you already have a new job ... and from now on you don't know me, and I don't know you."

According to Santillan's attorney, Whitman never asked about her immigration status, although she had several clues that Santillan was in the country illegally. This is a frequent occurrence amongst California families with the means to afford hired help, and it seems Whitman was no exception. However, as the decision to fire Santillan came at a time when a gubernatorial campaign loomed on the horizon, it raises suspicions as to whether Whitman fired her housekeeper due to fear of looking "soft" on immigration issues.

Whitman, the Republican nominee now in a tough race against California Attorney General Jerry Brown, has made it a point to reach out to Latinos in California, launching numerous campaign ads casting her as an opponent of Arizona's SB 1070. But given Whitman's stern conservative stance on border policy and immigration during her primary campaign with Steve Poizner, she has been left with little credibility on the issue.

Now, given the particularly explosive nature of recent events concerning Whitman's housekeeper, Whitman may lose the progress she has made in the polls among Latinos. If evidence proves Whitman had full knowledge of her housekeepers' undocumented status and chose to fire her not immediately, but after nine years of faithful service right before a Republican primary campaign, that reversal of fortune would be much deserved.

Video credit: guanabeetv

Danny Rangel is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles who has worked for the International Rescue Committee and MEND.
PREVIOUS STORY:
What Does It Mean to Be “First Generation”?
NEXT STORY:
Community Members Fight Detention of High School Graduate with a Mental Disability

COMMENTS (24)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.