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The explosive revelation that Donald Trump has and continues to employ undocumented immigrant workers at his New Jersey golf club isn’t an anomaly. “As a politician,” commented immigrant rights leader Frank Sharry, Trump “rails against undocumented immigrant workers. As a business owner, Trump relies on and mistreats undocumented immigrant workers,” dating all the way back to the construction of his gaudy crown jewel in Manhattan decades ago.
"Trump Tower was built in part by undocumented Polish workers who sued Trump to get wages they said they were owed,” columnist Paul Waldman writes. “'We worked in horrid, terrible conditions,' said one. 'We were frightened illegal immigrants and did not know enough about our rights.'" Some, The Daily Beast reported in 2015, were threatened if they complained. “Trump underlings had threatened them with deportation if they caused trouble. They walked in to the job from Brooklyn when a transit strike hit the city. Some of them slept at the site.”
Undocumented workers also helped build Trump’s luxury hotel in Washington, D.C., which is currently embroiled in a whole different scandal of its own. While some of the laborers said that they had since been able to adjust their status after entering the U.S. without authorization, “others quietly acknowledged that they remain in the country illegally.” One truck driver at the site, David Montoya, has been living here since 2001 under Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Trump is now trying to terminate those protections, though he's been temporarily blocked by a judge. Essentially, “thanks—now get out.”
Montoya, according to The Washington Post, “noted with pride that he thinks his story—one of coming to a new world, and of hard work paying off—is more impressive than that of the powerful developer whose name adorned the sign behind him as he spoke. ‘Actually,’ he reflected, ‘we’re more American than him.’” Another brave American-in-waiting who stepped forward at great personal risk is Victorina Morales, who said she is undocumented and has been working at Trump’s golf resort for five years, and in such close proximity that she’s made his bed.
Morales’ bravery may have also exposed more criminal behavior by the Trump Organization, because Morales alleges management helped her procure false documentation in order to work, while then exploiting her immigration status. “The housekeeping supervisor frequently made remarks about the employees’ vulnerable legal status when critiquing their work, she said, sometimes calling them ‘stupid illegal immigrants’ with less intelligence than a dog.”
Trump’s excuse here has been to say that he has nothing to do with hiring, with his former attorney Michael Cohen blaming any unauthorized workers on the contractors who bring them in. But shouldn’t the man who consistently rails on undocumented immigrants and foreign workers be held to the absolute highest standard here? “These actions would be shocking if perpetrated by any U.S. employer,” said Sharry’s organization America’s Voice, “let alone the Trump Organization.”
Morales, meanwhile, said she has not returned to her job at the New Jersey resort. “She has a second job cleaning offices at night, and hopes to continue working there.” As to her future in the U.S., there could be a path to stay here: “She and other undocumented workers at Bedminster could be granted visas that protect victims of crime and trafficking as well as witnesses,” the New York Times continues. “This means they would not be viewed as perpetrators of illegal activity at the club; their employer would be.”
“The explosive New York Times story raises serious and troubling questions about the employment practices and mistreatment of workers by Trump’s operation,” Sharry continued. “It is imperative that federal and state authorities launch and conduct a full investigation into Trump Organization abuse and criminality related to its Bedminster workforce, while ensuring that we protect the workers, starting with those who have shined a light on Trump’s lawlessness and hypocrisy.”