Romney Weathers 'Illegal Worker' Allegations

Feb. 13, 2007 — -- Foes of illegal immigration are joining the presidential campaign of former Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, despite a Boston Globe report that he hired a landscaping firm that allegedly employed illegal workers.

"A person of goodwill can make an inadvertent mistake," Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., told ABC News. "I certainly would not hold that against him."

On Dec. 1, the Boston Globe reported that for a decade, Romney used the landscaping company Community Lawn Service Company with a Heart, which allegedly "relies heavily on illegal workers" to maintain the lawn at his pink colonial home in Belmont, Mass.

Romney responded to the story by telling the Globe through a spokesman that he knows nothing about the immigration status of the landscaping workers employed by the landscaping firm, adding that his dealings were with the firm's head, Ricardo Saenz, a legal immigrant from Colombia.

The Democratic National Committee seized on the Globe report last year to paint Romney as a hypocrite.

"Even as Romney travels the country, vowing to curb the flood of low-skilled illegal immigrants into the United States," read the D.N.C.'s missive to reporters, "some of those workers maintain his own yard, cutting grass, pruning shrubs and mulching trees."

But two-and-a-half months after the story appeared, it does not appear to have slowed Romney from making inroads in the House GOP conference where anti-immigration passions run high.

At present, Romney counts 23 House Republicans in his camp-- eight more House Republicans than Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and 18 more than former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Romney has also won the silence of Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., the anti-illegal immigrant firebrand who is pursuing a long-shot presidential campaign.

Romney has appealed to illegal immigration foes by vowing to implement a tamper-proof employment verification system while securing U.S. borders and increasing the number of high-skilled immigrants admitted into the United States.