Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 17, 1993 TAG: 9301170109
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LITTLE ROCK, ARK. LENGTH: Medium
ATTORNEY GENERAL PICK PAYS FINE FOR WORKERS
Attorney General-designate Zoe Baird and her husband on Saturday paid a $2,900 fine for employing illegal aliens in their home. A Clinton transition spokesman said the president-elect considers the matter "now resolved."Communications director George Stephanopoulos said that Baird and her husband, Paul Gewirtz, paid the civil penalty to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Baird's employment of an undocumented Peruvian couple to serve as baby sitter and driver had become an issue at her Senate confirmation hearing.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph Biden said "I expect her to be confirmed" and the senator added that the penalty "brings to a close the INS investigation of Ms. Baird's employment of household workers."
A key Republican on the committee, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, expressed doubt that the fine or the cause of it would prove an obstacle. "I think it gets the matter behind us all," Hatch said in a telephone interview. "For those who feel there has to be some penalty, that resolves it."
If confirmed, Baird would oversee the INS, which enforces the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act.
The law carries civil penalties of up to $3,000 per count for businesses and individuals who knowingly hire illegal aliens.
Stephanopoulos said that Clinton "`has complete confidence in Zoe Baird, whose disclosures in this matter have been forthright from the beginning.
"And he looks forward to her confirmation and service as attorney general of the United States," he said.
"We are pleased the matter is now resolved," Stephanopoulos said.
The payment of the fine was announced a day after a key House Republican leader, GOP Whip Newt Gingrich of Georgia, said that Baird had "crossed the line."
"You can't have a person who ought to be prosecuted serving in the Cabinet," Gingrich said.
Said the statement from Clinton's chief spokesman: "Ms. Baird has taken responsibility for this matter and acknowledges that to have hired any employee before receiving the necessary authorization was a mistake. She deeply regrets the mistakes she has made in this matter."
The payment of the civil penalty is separate from the late payment of Social Security taxes that Baird and her husband made recently.
While the penalties for immigration violations are relatively small, the penalty for Social Security tax violations can involve fines of up to $100,000 and prison terms.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have said they doubt the disclosure will derail Baird's confirmation to head the Justice Department.
Baird is general counsel of Aetna Life and Casualty Co. in New Haven, Conn. Her husband is a law professor at Yale.
The Peruvian couple no longer works for Baird and Gewirtz. The man left his work as a driver for Baird last March, and the woman left after the election in November.
The statement by Stephanopoulos said Baird and Gewirtz were under the impression at the time that the Peruvian couple was in the process of being sponsored to work legally in the country.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.