The Hand that Rocks The Cradle May Decide the Election.
Rabid Anti-Immigration Senator Made Illegal Nanny Hide In Basement.
Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Jim Gibbons is facing more tough questions on a whole new issue. These questions revolve around an illegal immigrant whom Gibbons and his wife Dawn employed as their housekeeper and babysitter. The woman, Patricia Pastor Sandoval, says she worked for the Gibbons’ for years and the family occasionally made her hide in the basement to keep her illegal status a secret.
It is illegal to knowingly employ an undocumented alien. It’s also illegal to employ such a person, pay them under the table, and then fail to pay employer taxes.
Sandoval says she worked for Jim Gibbons and his wife Dawn for several years, starting in 1987, and that the family has tried to cover it up. It’s a story pregnant with political implications.
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.
Pastor Sandoval, who is Peruvian, says she entered the U.S. in 1984 by hiding in the trunk of a car as it crossed over from Tijuana. She got a job cleaning the sprawling house on the outskirts of Reno. When the Gibbons family bought the house in 1987, she stayed on.
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.”
Mrs, Gibbons even filed a police complaint for extortion against the nanny when she dared to ask for a letter verifying her employment. That’s not all, though:
But there is more. Beginning in 1988, the Gibbons family tried to help Patty obtain legal status. These documents, 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.”
Indeed they did. The average wage per week for a legal nanny is between 250-800 dollars, plus benefits – Health Insurance, automobile insurance, if she is a driver of the family automobile; travel expenses, 2 weeks paid vacation, 6 paid holidays. accommodation (private room for live-in); separate car for nanny’s use if possible; all this according to All-American Nanny. I think that’d easily come to a damned sight more than 4 dollars an hour.
Read more: US politics, Nevada, Congressional elections, Immigration, Childcare, Illegal nannies, Republican hypocrisy
