CA: State GOP fires worker facing immigration problems

SFGate.com ^ | 3/6/08 | Carla Marinucci and Lance Williams

[NormsRevenge]

SACRAMENTO --

The Canadian political operative hired by the California Republican Party on a coveted H1B visa to do campaign consulting has been fired after it was revealed he was apparently working in violation of immigration law.

The dismissal, announced this week, came after The Chronicle reported last month that Christopher Matthews apparently violated federal immigration law when he also earned money from a second employer.

Matthews, a Canadian citizen, was hired last year as deputy political director for the California Republican Party, with responsibility for handling campaign operations and information technology for the country's largest state GOP operation, U.S. Department of Labor records showed.

Matthews "no longer works for the California Republican Party," Hector Barajas, a state party spokesman, confirmed Thursday.

The state party applied last year for an H-1B visa on behalf of Matthews, saying he would fill the job of "political consultant." The visa labor certification was granted last March and the Canadian's three-year H-1B visa is valid until Sept. 9, 2010, government records show.

But Federal Election Commission records show that Matthews also had earned nearly $6,000 in 2008 working for a different employer - the San Diego Republican Party.

Ron Nehring, the state GOP chairman, is a San Diego resident who was the former head of the San Diego Republican Party.

Jonathan Buettner, spokesman for the San Diego GOP, said Matthews was a legal employee under a valid "TN" visa - a renewable one-year special visa for Canadian and Mexican professional workers created under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Officials from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, however, said immigration law prohibited such dual visa arrangements.

[org.whodat]

California Republican Party

They sure have a lot of problems hiring American citizens don't they.

[indcons]

Why didn’t Pres. Bush just grant the guy amnesty?

[familyop]

Miss Jane Hathaway, same as Raul Garcia?

The Boss is an evil tyrant, and this generation is nuts.

[Iron Munro]

There is more to the story.
This has been going on since 2004 - at least.

State GOP Goes Outside The U.S. To Hire Top Aide

Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer
Thursday, June 14, 2007

"The California Republican Party has decided no American is qualified to take one of its most crucial positions -- state deputy political director -- and has hired a Canadian for the job through a coveted H-1B visa, a program favored by Silicon Valley tech firms that is under fire for displacing skilled American workers.

Christopher Matthews, 35, a Canadian citizen, has worked for the state GOP as a campaign consultant since 2004.
But he recently was hired as full-time deputy political director, with responsibility for handling campaign operations and information technology for the country's largest state Republican Party operation, California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring confirmed in a telephone interview this week."

I Wonder Why Donations Are Down...

[Publius6961]

LOL!

The tiny people in the CA democratic party strike again...

Anybody think if he had been a democratic employee we would have heard anything about this?

[bcsco]

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