Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Pastor Sandoval says one reason she is talking about her previous relationship with Jim and Dawn Gibbons is because of the statements Gibbons has made during his campaign about getting tough with illegal immigrants. After all, she was an illegal herself.

[...]

In the beginning, she says no one asked about her legal status, but it became abundantly clear the Gibbons family knew she was not here legally since they often asked her to hide when certain people came to the house.

Sandoval said, "She told me somebody coming to the home, don't answer the door, don't say nothing because my husband is running. I think, at that time, for Assembly. One time she told me the newspaper or someone is coming, go downstairs and not come here until they left."

The issue of Patty's immigration status came to public attention once before, in 1995, when Pastor Sandoval wrote to the Gibbons family to request verification of her previous employment, which ended in 1993.

Dawn Gibbons told a newspaper she considered this an extortion attempt, so she filed a police complaint. Mrs. Gibbons told a reporter, quote, "She (Pastor Sandoval) said she wanted me to sign a letter saying she worked for me. I told her I can't lie."

She can't lie, eh?

Well, this copy of the Employment Agreement signed by Dawn Gibbons and Patricia Pastor suggests Ms. Gibbons is quite capable of lying.

In addition...

In 1991, when Jim Gibbons returned from the Gulf War, he invited Patty and her husband to the state legislature. Their names were mentioned on the floor and are part of the official record. Patty says she spent most of that day walking the Gibbons baby around the hallways. With busy up-and-comers for parents, young Jimmy spent more time with Patty than anyone. He even came to call her mama, Sandoval says.

But there is more. Beginning in 1988, the Gibbons family tried to help Patty obtain legal status. These documents (Application for Alien Employment: Page 1, 2, 3,4), never made public before, were signed by Dawn Gibbons under penalty of perjury. In the papers, it's made clear that everyone knew Sandoval was an undocumented worker. The documents indicate she had worked for the Gibbons family since 1987, cooking, cleaning, and babysitting.

The government files also contain an employment contract, signed by Dawn Gibbons, guaranteeing to pay Sandoval $800 a month. Patty says that's what she was paid from the beginning, always in cash.

Immigration attorney Vincenta Montoya is representing Sandoval. She said, "Eight hundred dollars a month at ten hours a day, fifty hours per week, that's about $4 an hour. Plus, social security was not paid. Disability was not paid. Workers comp was not paid. Taxes weren't paid. I think the Gibbons got a very good deal for very low money."

Montoya says, since 1986, federal law requires employers to verify the immigration status of employees, and that the documents leave no doubt the Gibbons family knew Patty was an illegal but kept her working anyway.

Ironically, a bill voted on by Rep Gibbons subjects his wife and him to felony provisions for hiring an undocumented worker.

In the end, the Gibbons did the only thing they could when called out on their illegal, unethical, hypocritical actions... they blamed someone else.

Time to shift another governorship and a congressional seat into the Democrat's column -- and there is no one to blame except the Gibbons themselves.