Posted on 05/21/2006 4:13:45 PM PDT by notes2005
President Bush has always been drawn to stories of Latino immigrants who came up by their bootstraps, and he has one inspiring example close to home, report Senior White House Correspondent Richard Wolffe, White House Correspondent Holly Bailey and Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas in Newsweek's May 29 issue (on newsstands Monday, May 22).
Mexican-born citizen Maria Galvan, 53, has worked for Bush, looked after his daughters, befriended his wife and won the affection of the first family for her loyalty, decency and hard work. As governor of Texas, Bush encouraged his housekeeper to become a U.S. citizen.
Galvan got a job at the Texas governor's mansion just as Bush moved in with his family in 1995. (The White House last week refused to comment on Galvan, except to say that she is a U.S. citizen; White House aides were silent on how she entered the country and what her legal status was at the time.)
The Bushes liked Galvan so much that they brought her to Washington, D.C., in 2001. She lives in the White House, travels with the first family and looks after their beloved dogs. She is said by White House insiders, who refuse to be identified discussing first family matters, to be "part of the family," which is unusual for staff in the formal, institutionalized Executive Mansion.
Bush recognized early on that inspiring Latino family stories could be a boon to the Republican Party. "He appreciates how close Latino families are with each other," says Israel Hernandez, an early campaign aide whom Bush hired after hearing his family story. "For a long time, he's talked about how these are the qualities he thinks the party represents. He has always talked about immigration in a very compassionate way."
But the president's willingness to help illegal immigrants on the path to citizenship sets him apart from many vocal conservatives in the Republican Party and the divide could paralyze the effort to bring much-needed reform to the nation's immigration laws.
I'm assuming she was in this country legally to begin with.
Is this CYA? So, did she have forged documents to get on government employment? Was she paid a decent salary? How about medical, SS, and retirement? Time and a half over-time and 2 weeks vacation, and what about sick leave? Oh well, we'll know all the dirt just as soon as Shrillary moves back in.
I'll betcha she's legal.
This is just another "death by a thousand cuts" story.
And why should you assume that, absent a statement to that effect from the White House?
I am increasingly applying the "trust but verify" axiom to the Bush administration.
This backs up an excellent comment I have read elsewhere on these threads: To wit, Bush has never seen the real Mexico, with all it's corruption, violence and dysfunction. Only ruling-class family friends and salt-of-the earth servants. He really does not fathom what Mexico is actually like.
Of course, she is now, but why won't the WH tell us if she was?
So Attorney Gen. Gonzales has illegal relatives, and the President hired a "non-citizen" to baby sit his twins. Isn't that special....
Oh my God the sky is falling!
President Bush has a maid who came from Mexico but is a U.S. citizen. Big freakin' deal.
If she was legal when she went to work for Bush in Texas, you know the White House aides would confirm it. The fact that they don't want to talk about her entry status can only mean one thing.
No wonder Bush wants to give a pass to all the illegal aliens. We have millions for people who have broken the law and the POTUS will not enforce the law. Teddy Roosevelt must be spinning in his grave.
The first step is to get the MSM and Dems to demand an investigation into a naturalized U.S. citizen's status, without credible evidence of any wrong doing.
The next step is to deny any wrong doing.
The third step is to insist that since Galvan is a U.S. citizen, she has a right to privacy, and that if the Democrats want to insist on an investigation, they must present evidence to merit charges and investigation.
The fourth step is to get the Democrats riled up over the impasse that they insist that there is no "right of privacy" for hispanics.
At which point the appropriate documents are released with Galvan's permission proving that she was legal, and that she became a U.S. citizen like any other legal immigrant.
She gets a book deal, and does interviews about how great the Bush's are. She tells funny stories about the daughters, goes on Oprah to talk about how much she values her U.S. citizenship.
The Democrats try to bury the story under claims of a "set-up" and "conflicts of interest". Galvan becomes wealthy, a spokesperson to the hispanic community about what it means to be an American conservative from the perspective of a hispanic, immigrant, and naturalized citizen.
Then we wake up and realize that the MSM didn't get the memo to cover the whole story, and the only thing the world knows is that Bush had a hispanic immigrant as a housekeeper.
So George Bush and family have a Mexican servant and that applies to me how? They can afford Mexican servants, I cannot.
So if this little fact is another one of those compassionate stories intended to make me accept millions of illegals......again.....didn't work. If anything it showed me that he has no clue what people in the real world have to deal with.
sheesh
Maybe they just chose not to comment and/or didn't know enough to comment?
Some people here choose to give President Bush the non-benefit of the doubt, and that blows.
See post 15
Funny, the twins were 13 when he first became governor. I don't know many teens who want someone looking after them. So, that would conclude she was already in his employ before he went to Austin.
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