Dr. Oz claims he’ll be tough on illegal immigration, even though his families’ company was fined $100million 5 years ago for hiring illegal immigrants
In a tweet last weekend, Dr. Oz promised to “end illegal immigration” if he were to win a Pennsylvania Senate seat come November:
“As your United States Senator, I will fight to end illegal immigration and soft-on-crime policies that release dangerous, undocumented criminals into sanctuary cities.”
via Twitter / @DrOz
Many people immediately noticed the hypocrisy of the statement as it comes from a man who is a shareholder of a family-owned business (started by his wife’s grandfather) that paid nearly $100 million in federal fines for “their failure to comply with immigration law,” according to a 2917 ICE press release.
MSN called the penalty a “record-breaking fine from ICE for hiring undocumented workers” at the time.
And the doctor-turned-MAGA-manipulator had no problem accepting the company’s $12,000 donation to his Senate campaign — endorsed by fellow hypocrite Trump, of course.
“Asplundh Tree Experts, Co., a business for which Oz is listed as a shareholder on FEC documents, settled with US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in 2017 after a six-year investigation and audit revealed a systemic effort to hire undocumented workers for their tree-pruning company.
Asplundh Tree Experts, Co., one of the largest privately-held companies in the United States, headquartered in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, (‘Asplundh’), pleaded guilty today to unlawfully employing aliens,” an ICE press release regarding the settlement read, “in connection with a scheme in which the highest levels of Asplundh management remained willfully blind while lower level managers hired and rehired employees they knew to be ineligible to work in the United States.”
The company, which has donated $12,000 to Oz’s Senate campaign, was sentenced to pay forfeiture in the amount of $80 million dollars and an additional $15 million dollars “to satisfy civil claims arising out of their failure to comply with immigration law,” an amount which represented the largest payment ever levied in an immigration case.”
via Twitter
According to Business Insider, the Oz campaign spokespeople insist that Oz and his wife are distanced from the company, and that nothing further has happened with the issue since the 2017 penalty/fines:
“A campaign spokeswoman, Erin Perrine, told the New York Post that neither Oz nor his wife, Lisa, had worked at the company “or had any involvement in decision-making regarding its business practices, period.”
The company reached a civil settlement in 2017 with the federal government with no further action taken since then,” Perrine continued. “Dr. Oz and Lisa Oz are passive shareholders in the company along with 200+ other family members. As passive, minority shareholders, Dr. Oz and Lisa Oz had zero involvement in the settlement.”
