Eric Trump was deeply offended by The Washington Post’s explosive revelation that his dad’s New York golf club had been abruptly firing undocumented immigrant workers during the recent government shutdown, attacking “incompetent” lawmakers and tweeting that the “pathetic” media must have other world events to focus on, and not the fact that, oh, his dad’s businesses are employing the same undocumented immigrants he demonizes for political gain.
“I must say,” Eric tweeted, “for me personally, this whole thing is truly heartbreaking. It demonstrates our immigration system is severely broken and needs to be fixed immediately. Congress, stop going to Hawaii on vacation and do your damn job!” Okay. Donald Trump’s third favorite son was, however, not so vocal when it came to addressing specific hiring practices by the Trump Organization.
Unlike several other golf courses in New York, the Trump Westchester club does not use E-Verify, on online system that allows employers to check with the U.S. government about whether individuals have the right to work in the United States. Eric Trump did not respond to a question about whether it would start.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and Eric makes some sense when he says that our immigration system must be overhauled. But that reform must be humane and address the legalization of families, not whatever racist bullshit Trump adviser Stephen Miller dreams up while grinning at pictures of families getting ripped apart at the border. Eric “also did not answer whether executives had been aware that they employed undocumented workers.” Former workers—and former supervisors—wonder how they couldn’t have known.
“Don’t ask, don’t tell,” a former manager told The Washington Post about hiring undocumented immigrants. One long-term worker who was recently fired during the shutdown “said he was told repeatedly to go get better fake documents because the ones he had turned in were too sloppily made.” Oh, there’s plenty of outrage from Eric, but it’s not about system abuse—it’s about getting caught abusing the system.