Bush expresses confidence in embattled labor nominee

"She knew I was not legal in this country," Mercado told The Associated Press. "She knew I didn't have my green card. I wanted to get it, but it was not easy. ... She had the intention to be my sponsor. She told me one day that she wanted to help me."

A spokesman for Bush, Tucker Eskew, gave a different account Monday, saying Chavez "came to know of this woman's status sometime after she had left her home, when the woman returned to Guatemala."

Several Bush aides said Chavez told his advisers she did not know Mercado was in the country illegally until the woman had left her home.

Mercado said FBI agents interviewed her about her ties to Chavez on Sunday. Though rarely enforced, knowingly harboring an illegal alien is prohibited by federal law -- a fact Democrats who oppose Chavez' nomination were exploring ahead of her Senate confirmation hearing, Jan. 16-17.

Bush, who said he learned of the matter Sunday night, stood by his nominee. "I strongly believe that when the Senate gives her a fair hearing, they'll vote for her," he said.

The president-elect faced a barrage of questions on the subject on two separate occasions Monday, 12 days before his inauguration. He said of Chavez, "I firmly believe she'll be a fine secretary of labor."

Democrats promised a vigorous examination of the case. Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the committee considering the Chavez nomination, called the new information "very troubling."

Bush aides were reviewing FBI interviews with Chavez and Mercado, as well as their own discussions with Chavez, to determine whether the nominee had abided by the law and had been forthcoming. They said so far there was no evidence of a violation.

Knowingly housing an illegal immigrant is against the law, but authorities usually go after smugglers who violate "harboring" statutes, not people who let undocumented aliens stay at their homes.

But for Chavez, providing housing and money to a Guatemalan women -- she said she was driven by compassion -- has added controversy to her quest to win confirmation. She already was being strongly criticized by unions and some Democrats for past statements on such issues as affirmative action and the minimum wage.

Mercado said she did laundry, cleaned the kitchen and bathrooms and took care of the dogs in Chavez' home but was not regularly paid and did not consider herself an employee. "I felt it (made) me feel better doing some things for them. She gave me some money, not every week, maybe two or three weeks," she said, adding the payment varied from $60 to $200.

Mercado said she worked for a Chavez neighbor. "Mrs. Linda's neighbors might have thought I was working for her because sometimes they saw me with the dogs and trash," she said. "They might have thought I was working for her. That was not exactly what was happening."

A maid at the neighborhood home where Mercardo worked, Sandra Johnson, said the Guatemalan woman did extra housekeeping for her employer in the secluded cul de sac and was paid $130 a week.

"My employer paid her more than Linda Chavez. I remember that very clearly," Johnson told The AP, adding that she was certain Mercardo was working rather than simply accepting donations "because she has three girls back in her country that she had to support."

Johnson said the FBI spoke to her employers a few days ago.

Mercado lived at Chavez's Maryland home in 1991 and 1992. She now has a visa that allows her to work legally in the United States.

At the start of the Clinton administration, Zoe Baird's nomination for attorney general was derailed because she had employed an illegal immigrant as a nanny.

Chavez was critical of Baird, saying in 1993 on PBS: "I think most of the American people were upset during the Zoe Baird nomination that she had hired an illegal alien. That was what upset them more than the fact that she did not pay Social Security taxes" on the nanny's wages.

Bush's aides said Chavez helped Mercado for charitable reasons. Chavez told The Washington Post: "If someone came to me needing shelter and needing a helping hand even under the same circumstances, I would try to help them.

An Immigration and Naturalization official said that if Chavez knew Mercado was undocumented she might well have been in violation of the immigration law, which carries fines starting at $2,000 per charge.

"It's very rare that an individual would be prosecuted for this," said Jeanne Butterfield, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "On the other hand, if you are a Cabinet secretary you have to expect that you are going to be under a lot of scrutiny."

Employers are supposed to check on whether workers have documents. Exempt are housekeepers who provide "sporadic, irregular and intermittent service," according to federal statute.

Chavez did not return messages left for her at the Center For Equal Opportunity, a Virginia nonprofit group she heads.

A spokesman for Sen. Kennedy, Jim Manley, said the case would be pursued in confirmation hearings and Chavez would also be questioned about her opposition to affirmative action, a minimum wage increase and other issues.

Another case that could come up: In 1986, during a failed run for the Senate, Chavez acknowledged that she defaulted on "a couple of thousand dollars" in government student loans used to pay for college. She told The Post that she paid them back a decade later, only after she had become a federal employee and was tracked down.

Chavez is not the only nominee who assisted an illegal alien. New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman, Bush's nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, disclosed in 1993 that she and her husband had employed two Portuguese natives for more than three years when they were in the country illegally.

Whitman didn't pay taxes on their wages for part of that time, but later said she paid the outstanding taxes. The couple, who obtained legal residency in 1991, still work for Whitman.

Reporters Laura Meckler and Scott Lindlaw contributed to this story in Washington.<