Donald Trump is set to appear in the White House Rose Garden on Thursday to make public remarks on failson Jared Kushner’s new immigration “plan,” which, because it fails to even mention the legalization of millions of undocumented families in the U.S., is no serious immigration plan and deserves no further scrutiny. If you’re inclined to spend your energy reading it instead of petting a cat or napping, here’s a link.
What White House reporters should press Trump on, though, should be the Trump Organization’s long history—an ongoing one—of exploiting undocumented workers at his numerous resorts. These workers, some of whom worked at his businesses for years, have made his bed, cleaned his shorts, prepared his hamberders, manicured his greens, and dusted his dubiously won golfing trophies. They’ve cared not just for him, but for the entire Trump family. They’ve been loyal and hard workers that any company would be proud to employ and nurture.
But as Trump profits off their backbreaking labor and their sweat, he’s also made a political career out of demonizing and slandering them, falsely accusing them and the vulnerable families seeking refuge at our border at this very moment of being criminals and murderers and moochers and non-humans that you should be afraid of. Yet, for as much time as he spends publicly spewing about these families, Trump is never properly confronted by the media about his hypocrisy.
You know who hasn’t been afraid to challenge him? The workers. “Whenever President Trump gives a speech on immigration, he attacks immigrants,” said Sandra Diaz, who was undocumented during the time she worked as a housekeeper at Trump’s Bedminster resort. “But what he always leaves out is the work so many of us did—and still do—for him including many who are undocumented. We cared for him, his family and his guests and kept his business running smoothly. He knows that but won’t talk about it.”
There are literally dozens of Trump workers now who, like Sandra, have bravely stepped forward to describe physical and emotional abuse, unpaid labor, and exploitation while working at Trump’s businesses across several states. They’ve put everything on the line—including their very future here—to speak out to expose what has essentially been a criminal enterprise operated by the president of the United States. They deserve, at the very least, for him to be publicly challenged about this. Trump’s cruel immigration hypocrisy will be on full display today. Will the media finally call him on it?
“So Mr. President, will you address in your announcement [Thursday] the fact that you employ scores of undocumented immigrants?” Diaz asks. “Cheated them out of wages, overtime, hours and benefits? And rather than fight to demonize us, will you instead fight to legalize us—so that we can continue to legally help you make your golf clubs running? You have a chance to tell the truth to America what you already know about us, because you hired us: we are decent, hardworking families who love this country and simply want a chance to get legal and continue to pay our taxes and pay our dues to this great country.”