Chertoff's Cleaner Hired Illegals

A cleaning service whose illegal workers got past Secret Service checks to scrub Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff’s home is facing fines for hiring undocumented laborers, the Washington Post reports. The owner calls the enforcement uneven, saying his small business may go under while customers and large companies enjoy cheap labor unscathed. Authorities say he wasn’t targeted, and investigations are based on tips.

Authorities added that Chertoff—the nation’s top immigration official—had a reasonable expectation of getting legal helpers from Consistent Cleaning Services, once the housekeeping choice for the Clintons and Madeleine Albright. They differentiated his situation from that of a top border patrol official in Boston, who faces criminal charges for hiring illegal immigrants to clean her condo. (More Michael Chertoff stories.)