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Excerpted from “Whitman's ex-maid emerges as symbol” By Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer, The San Francisco Chonicle, Sunday, October 10, 2010
[SIZE="+2"]W[/SIZE]hen she came forward as an undocumented Mexican immigrant to challenge the billionaire who was her boss for nine years, Nicandra Santillan Diaz not only helped undermine the carefully crafted message behind Meg Whitman's gubernatorial campaign but may have emerged as one of its most enduring images.
…
From San Francisco to Los Angeles this week, undocumented domestic and farm workers - some of them holding signs proclaiming "I am Nicky" - held demonstrations to express solidarity with Diaz. They said her statement that Whitman was "throwing me away like a piece of garbage" when she asked for help becoming a legal citizen made her the face of a new movement for the workplace rights of the undocumented. …
For nine years Nicky cleaned Meg Whitman's toilets.
“We were like family.” — Meg Whitman
But, Meg Whitman claims that for all those years she didn't know that little Nicky was an illegal alien. So, by Meg's own lights she is not accountable for years of illegal employment. Her toilets are clean and so is her conscience.
By Meg's explanation, only Nicky can be held to blame. Isn't this a microcosm of the whole illegal immigration debate? Lawns get manicured. Houses get built. Toilets get cleaned. And, only the “little people” are held to account for this unfair system.