Donald Trump’s businesses have fired at least 18 undocumented immigrant workers after two former housekeepers came forward to say they worked at one of his golf clubs despite lacking legal papers, but the story goes far beyond two workers, or even 18. “Bedminster golf course employed so many undocumented immigrants,” the Washington Post reports, “that there’s an entire town in Costa Rica built on Trump paychecks.” In their explosive investigation, Post reporters Joshua Partlow, Nick Miroff, and David Fahrenthold describe a “pipeline” of undocumented workers who were welcomed at the New Jersey golf club:
The former employees who still live in New Jersey provided pay slips documenting their work at the Bedminster club. They identified friends and relatives in Costa Rica who also were employed at the course. In Costa Rica, The Post located former workers in two regions who provided detailed accounts of their time at the Bedminster property and shared memorabilia they had kept, such as Trump-branded golf tees, as well as photos of themselves at the club.
Sixteen former Trump workers, including six who are now in Costa Rica, “said they were employed at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster. All of them said they worked for Trump without legal status—and that their managers knew.” The investigation found that workers who went through the “pipeline” north from Costa Rica and elsewhere to Trump’s New Jersey club then recruited others to follow them.
There were no questions asked at Bedminster.
Several former workers said that managers in housekeeping and maintenance were well aware their documents were fraudulent — but hired them anyway. Gilberta Dominguez said her manager filled out her application in 2016 because she didn’t speak English.
“And I said, ‘Listen, we don’t have good papers,’ ” Dominguez, of Oaxaca, Mexico, recalled telling her manager. “She said, ‘It doesn’t matter; don’t talk about that.’ ”
Fahrenthold tweeted that the Trump Organization “has indicated” that it didn’t know undocumented immigrants were employed at Bedminster, but a police report indicates that the resort’s head of security knew as far back as 2011 that there were workers without papers there. “Eric Trump, a son of the president who runs the Trump Organization along with his brother Donald Trump Jr., declined to comment on the accounts by the former workers. Bedminster managers did not return requests for comment.” They knew. They all knew.