Yes, I know that title may seem hyperbolic — but the fact of the matter is — it's not. Let review why I bring this up, because as we know Trump has sided with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy in their fued with hard-right MAGAs who want to deport all immigrants, including those who have been brought to the US legally using H-1B Visas supposedly in order to "protect US workers."
But what about how those immigrants are treated using those Visas? And would Americans really be willing to do those jobs at these rates and conditions? Probably not.
As noted by the New York Post.
President-elect Trump told The Post Saturday he supports immigration visas for highly skilled workers, appearing to side with Elon Musk in the roiling intra-MAGA debate on the issue.
“I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them,” Trump said by phone, referring to the H-1B program, which permits companies to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations.
“I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program,” added Trump, who restricted access to foreign worker visas in his first administration and has been critical of the program in the past.
As anyone with a brain knows, normally, Trump does not hire H-1B Visa recipients. His companies normally use H-2B Visas for maids, bartenders, waiters and valets which he significantly expanded during his previous administration.
The Trump administration’s first year and a half in office has been defined by efforts to curtail nearly every avenue of immigration into the United States (both legal and illegal) and to restrict visas available for temporary foreign workers. The H-2B visa program, which several Trump golf clubs use to hire workers, is the one visa program that Trump has expanded.
We also know that he often hired the undocumented for these jobs. He doesn't hire high-end tech talent.
The Washington Post reports that the Trump Organization currently employs a “roving crew of Latin American employees” to perform masonry and maintenance work at his winery and various golf clubs around the country. For almost two decades, the group has been comprised of workers who came into the US illegally—the penalty for which the president seemingly believes should be death—according to two former crew members.
Except there was one time where he did have H-1B employees — and it was totally fucked up "Slave Labor."
As told by Mother Jones.
Canadian-born Rachel Blais spent nearly three years working for Trump Model Management. After first signing with the agency in March 2004, she said, she performed a series of modeling gigs for Trump’s company in the United States without a work visa. At Mother Jones‘ request, Blais provided a detailed financial statement from Trump Model Management and a letter from an immigration lawyer who, in the fall of 2004, eventually secured a visa that would permit her to work legally in the United States. These records show a six-month gap between when she began working in the United States and when she was granted a work visa. During that time, Blais appeared on Trump’s hit reality TV show, The Apprentice, modeling outfits designed by his business protégés. As Blais walked the runway, Donald Trump looked on from the front row.
Two other former Trump models—who requested anonymity to speak freely about their experiences, and who we are giving the pseudonyms Anna and Kate—said the agency never obtained work visas on their behalf, even as they performed modeling assignments in the United States. (They provided photographs from some of these jobs, and Mother Jones confirmed with the photographers or stylists that these shoots occurred in the United States.)
Each of the three former Trump models said she arrived in New York with dreams of making it big in one of the world’s most competitive fashion markets. But without work visas, they lived in constant fear of getting caught. “I was pretty on edge most of the time I was there,” Anna said of the three months in 2009 she spent in New York working for Trump’s agency.
“I was there illegally,” she said. “A sitting duck.”
According to three immigration lawyers consulted by Mother Jones, even unpaid employment is against the law for foreign nationals who do not have a work visa. “If the US company is benefiting from that person, that’s work,” explained Anastasia Tonello, global head of the US immigration team at Laura Devine Attorneys in New York. These rules for immigrants are in place to “protect them from being exploited,” she said. “That US company shouldn’t be making money off you.”
[...]
Kate, who worked for Trump Model Management in 2004, marveled at how her former boss has recently branded himself as an anti-illegal-immigration crusader on the campaign trail. “He doesn’t want to let anyone into the US anymore,” she said. “Meanwhile, behind everyone’s back, he’s bringing in all of these girls from all over the world and they’re working illegally.”
This was always a scam, from day one.
Trump's company brought these women were brought to the US and encouraged to lie on customs forms about why they were immigrating to America. They were Illegal Immigrants. Then they were blatantly exploited, underpaid, and placed in cramped unsanitary living conditions while 80% of their earnings were taken by the company in fees and charges for room and board.
It was just like Slave Labor in a sweat shop. This is what a pimp does. It was a criminal enterprise.
More from ABC News in 2016.
— -- A Jamaican-born fashion model is taking on Donald Trump, saying the modeling agency owned by the presidential candidate lured her to New York to work at age 17 with the promise of riches and fame and then treated her “like a slave.”
The model, Alexia Palmer, said in a lawsuit against the agency that she received only $3,880 plus cash advances totaling $1,100 over a three year period, even though Trump Model Management filed immigration documents to obtain a special work visa, called an H-1B, for Palmer, certifying she would work “full-time” and earn $75,000 a year.
“That’s what slavery people do,” Palmer told ABC News. “You work and don’t get no money.” The agency took 80 percent of her earnings as expenses and fees but only found her 21 shoots over three years. And under the terms of her visa, she could not work anywhere else if she wanted to stay in the U.S.
[...]
Palmer’s case comes as Trump is increasingly being questioned by his political rivals about his treatment of women and immigrants, and specifically, his frequent use of the guest worker visa known as H-1B. Both Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz took swipes at Trump about his use of foreign workers under the visa program. Trump has vacillated on the subject, defending his use of H-1B visas at his country club resorts, saying American workers would not be willing to take seasonal jobs as waiters and dish washers. He disavowed and then renewed his support for a position laid out in a recent statement, which called for an end to “rampant, widespread H-1B abuse.”
“I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program. No exceptions,” says the statement, posted to Trump’s website.
Here's another thing, this agency is how he met Melania.
For the billionaire real estate mogul, the SoHo-based Trump Model Management is a little-known holding in a vast global empire. The modeling business brought the Republican presidential contender between $1 million and $5 million in annual earnings, according to his public financial disclosure reports. The agency has also had a history of ties to Trump’s personal life. He has dated at least two models who worked there, including the woman who would become his third wife, Melania, who made a splash while the two were dating in 2000, posing nearly nude in the cockpit of a Trump private jet for a spread in British GQ.
There are supposedly protections in place for these workers and to protect Americans, but some of this is just lip service.
The agency’s website says it recruits girls as young as 14, scouting potential talent around the world. More than 100 Trump models have come to the U.S. on H-1B work visas. Federal labor laws require employers to commit to a set wage for those workers, and, to prevent companies from undercutting American workers, that wage must be better than the typical wage for an American worker.
"Girls as young as 14."
In another country, this would be known as human trafficking.
I wonder how the MAGAs — particularly those who are hopped up on "SAVE THE CHILDREN" with QANON — would react to this news, that Trump himself participated in human trafficking and slave labor with immigrant girls and women?
Just wait until they find out about the Jeffrey Epstein files?
And we knew this. These reports are all from 2016. None of this is news. It shouldn't be shocking. It shouldn't be a surprise.
But it is.
None of his is shocking to me personally because for a time I worked for a "model recruitment agency" known as TC Talent which was owned by Backstreet Boys and NSYNC organizer Lou Perlman.
Yeah, it was also a giant scam. Shocker.
There is a chance the MAGAs won't care about this the way they don't care about the E. Jean Carrol verdict for sexual assault (She's a Liar), and they don't care that he bragged about getting away with sexual assault on the Access Hollywood Tape (Locker Room Talk), and they don't care that he admitted that he used to "Inspect" the half-naked bodies of contestants of Miss Teen USA contest (I have no idea what this excuse is), and they don't care that he was best friends with Jeffrey Epstein (Again, no clue) — however they are really really energized about this H1B issue and are feeling fully betrayed.
They have realized this is an issue on their own, not because anyone in the media pushed the story onto them. People that they trust are blowing this horn. Leaking this little tidbit — through the original stories, not from here — to someone like Laura Loomer, Charlie Kirk or Steve Bannon just might be enough to push them over the edge. They won't abandon Trump of course, but it just might affect their blind cultish loyalty if they realize that he's been playing them this entire time.
They're already drowning in Xenophobia, let's throw them an anvil.
With as much Racist bullshit that he's been talking about "migrant crime" and "eating the cats and dogs" he's always been pro-immigration for the benefit of businesses, the exploitation of foreign workers and the detriment of Americans. This is why he blocked the bipartisan Immigration bill. This is why Congress has never been able to fix Immigration and the border - big business doesn't want them to fix the problem. They depend on this influx of cheap labor whether they are documented or not. This has always been the core problem.
He isn't backing Musk on this just because of all the money he got from him, this is who he is.
That's something.
We Democrats are generally pro-immigration — done the legal way through Visas and Asylum — but we're not pro-exploitation. We can have common-cause with MAGAs on this issue without a Xenophobic rationale, but with a humanitarian one. We don't just want to protect American workers, we also want to protect the migrants themselves from people like Trump.