Labor Secretary nominee once hired undocumented immigrant

Feb. 07--WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump's labor secretary nominee, Andy Puzder, could have a hearing as early as next week, but it will come with a new complication in a fight that has already drawn a wide array of opponents.

Puzder, a graduate of Washington University law school, issued a statement this week confirming that he had once employed a housekeeper who was an undocumented immigrant. The story was first reported late Monday by the Huffington Post.

Puzder issued the following statement: "My wife and I employed a housekeeper for a few years, during which I was unaware that she was not legally permitted to work in the U.S. When I learned of her status, we immediately ended her employment and offered her assistance in getting legal status. We have fully paid back taxes to the IRS and the State of California."

Such admissions have sunk previous presidential nominees, most notably then-President Bill Clinton's first attorney general nominee, Zoe Baird. And with Trump issuing executive orders and promising to build a fence to keep out undocumented immigrants, the revelation gives fresh arguments to those who have lined up to oppose Puzder on other grounds.

Puzder is one of a handful of Trump's cabinet nominees that Democrats have vowed to most deeply vet and fight. And now that the controversial nomination of Betsy DeVos as education secretary has passed the Senate, with a historic tie-breaking vote by Vice President Mike Pence, the focus will turn to Puzder.

But there is no sign, so far, of Republican support for Puzder receding, and their 52-48 majority in the Senate looms large in the fight looming over the nomination.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chair of the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee, said that he was satisfied with Puzder's answer and that the hearing would go forward.

"For me that doesn't disqualify him from being a cabinet member," Alexander said. "He discovered the mistake, he took responsibility for the mistake, he corrected the mistake and he reported the mistake. That is all you can do with a mistake.

"I think I have to look at that in terms of his entire life and what he has done as an individual in creating jobs, how effective he would be as a cabinet member -- and I think he will be a very good cabinet member," Alexander said.

Puzder's hearings before the HELP Committee have been pushed back several times, moves officials attribute to delays involving the Office of Government Ethics, which reviews potential conflicts of interest. Alexander said Tuesday that he expected that process to be completed soon and that a hearing could take place as early as next week.

Puzder is currently the chief executive of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's. Prior to that, he was a well-known St. Louis lawyer in the 1970s and 1980s. He represented anti-abortion rights activists and for a time worked for Morris A. Shenker, a famed lawyer for Teamsters union boss Jimmy Hoffa.

Hardee's was based in St. Louis, but CKE announced plans to move to its headquarters to Nashville.

Puzder's supporters say his blue-collar background from a working-class family from Cleveland and the fact that he worked his way through college give him a unique perspective on labor and job creation when it is twinned with his experience as a CEO.

But some labor union officials have attacked him as hostile to a higher minimum wage and worker safety. Women's groups have labeled as sexist his company's hamburger ads showing scantily clad women. Some opponents also have said allegations by his first wife of abuse , which she since recanted in a statement released by Puzder's defenders, deserve an explanation to the Senate before it votes on his nomination.

___

(c)2017 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Visit the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at www.stltoday.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.