Chertoff Hired Firm That Broke Law

WASHINGTON | The nation's top immigration cop unknowingly used a company that hired illegal immigrants to clean his home for about three years, starting in 2005.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff hired the Maryland-based Consistent Cleaning Services to clean his home in the D.C. suburbs every few weeks for the past three years until an investigation conducted by one of his department's agencies discovered the company hired illegal workers.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation, which began in January, culminated in charges against the owner of the cleaning company, James Reid, who was fined $22,800 in October, according to a homeland security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. Nine of Reid's employees were found using fraudulent documents, and 11 did not produce the appropriate forms to verify that they were legally allowed to work in the United States, the official said.

The investigation has not proven that any of the illegal workers actually cleaned Chertoff's home, the official said. But company owner James Reid said he knows at least six of his employees that he had to fire because of their illegal status worked at one time at the Chertoffs' home.

The company had cleaned Chertoff's home every few weeks for $185 since 2005. Chertoff became aware of the situation in April, fired the company and stayed out of the investigation.