AKA Immigration "reform": "The company also maintains the Internal Revenue Service center in Andover."
Troopers had relied on illegal workers Yet they may enforce immigration laws By Jonathan Saltzman and Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff | July 2, 2006 Governor Mitt Romney is pushing to give state troopers the authority to enforce federal immigration laws so they can arrest those who are here illegally. But records indicate the State Police has relied for years on a company to clean its barracks and headquarters that has employed scores of undocumented immigrants. A Globe review of payroll data from National Facility Services of Boylston found that more than 80 percent of the 192 unionized maintenance workers employed there in 2004 had questionable or bogus Social Security numbers. The company has received more than $2.2 million in state contracts since 2000, and is under contract to clean State Police headquarters in Framingham and 18 barracks and other facilities around the state. National Facility Services said it has cleaned State Police facilities for at least a decade. In response to the Globe findings, a lawyer for the company conceded that undocumented immigrants may have been employed at National Facility Services in the past, but said the firm has since tightened its policies and is complying with the law . The company, whose owner has given campaign donations to Romney and other politicians, has also received contracts to clean the state Department of Fish and Game, the state Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, the Massachusetts Turnpike Fast Lane office in Auburn, and other government buildings, according to company records and the state comptroller's office. The company also maintains the Internal Revenue Service center in Andover. The Globe analyzed the data last week after Romney proposed seeking the controversial agreement with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deputize state troopers to arrest undocumented immigrants. The Globe ran the Social Security numbers of the National Facility Services workers through three private databases that compile valid numbers. Of the 192 workers reviewed, 162 appeared to have bogus or questionable numbers. The most common explanation for irregularities with Social Security numbers is that the workers are undocumented, specialists said. At least 18 of the workers on the records reviewed had Social Security numbers that belonged to dead people, including three deceased people born in the 1800s. One undocumented worker from Brazil, who spoke to the Globe on condition of anonymity, said National Facility Services is well-known within the Brazilian community, and that many of his co-workers also are undocumented. The worker said he went to work immediately at the company after arriving here six years ago, using a Social Security number passed on to him by a friend who was moving back to Brazil. The worker told the Globe he was among those assigned to clean State Police barracks in Grafton and Holden. ``The owner, he has never questioned us about our numbers," said the worker, speaking in Portuguese. Continued... http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/07/02/troopers_had_relied_on_illegal_workers/?page=2
