Colin Powell: “I don’t hire illegal immigrants”
September 21st, 2010 - 8:34 pm ICT by Aishwarya BhattSep 21 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Former US Secretary of State, Colin Powell revealed on the Meet The Press show that airs on NBC that even though he knows illegal immigrants in the US do quite a good job in the American economy, he doesn’t have any of them working for him in his house.
He had earlier stated that illegal immigrants can be seen around his house and this led to a huge media uproar, which seemed to suggest that illegal immigrants were working for him personally.
He however clarified his remarks on Sunday in an interview on NBC with David Gregory that he actually meant that he has seen a lot of illegal immigrants in his neighborhood working for his neighbors. He stated in a defensive statement that, “I don’t hire illegal immigrants. On Meet the Press yesterday, I referred to illegal immigrants working around my house. I was referring to the many service contractors who work in my neighborhood, using mostly immigrant workers, who do good work. Some may well be “illegal.”
He however stated that undocumented workers are very important to the American economy because they were doing jobs that many Americans will turn down. There are an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US and Powell stated that they were working in one sector of the American economy or another.
Powell was a former Secretary of state under the George W. Bush government. He is also a retired US Army General and served as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
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