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Former 2016 presidential candidate Marco Rubio and some members of the media called into question Donald Trump's claims that he would be tough on "illegal immigration" by building "the greatest wall that you've ever seen" and that he would "be the greatest jobs president that God ever created."[1][2][3] During the February 25, 2016, GOP debate, Marco Rubio attacked Trump for hiring foreign laborers to work in his luxury Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and for using Polish workers to build Trump Tower. NBC News, National Review, Reuters and The New York Times, among others, also ran stories about Trump's use of foreign labor to build his real estate empire, which, according to Times reporters Charles Bagli and Megan Twohey, seemed to contradict his promise "to bring back jobs that have been snatched by illegal immigrants or outsourced by corporations."[4][5][6][7]
The Washington Post also investigated a Trump construction site in Washington, D.C., and found that "Interviews with about 15 laborers helping renovate the Old Post Office Pavilion revealed that many of them had crossed the U.S-Mexico border illegally before they eventually settled in the Washington region to build new lives." Commenting on Trump's controversial remarks about Mexican immigrants, one worker on the site said, "It’s something ironic. The majority of us are Hispanics, many who came illegally. And we’re all here working very hard to build a better life for our families."[8]
Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for the Trump Organization, disputed the claim in a statement, saying, "Our contractors are required to have prospective employees produce documentation that establishes identity and employment eligibility in compliance with immigration law. [Lend Lease] requires all contractors performing work at the project to follow all applicable federal, state and local laws."[8]
Along with allegations of using foreign workers residing in the country illegally to build Trump Tower and his new luxury hotel in Washington D.C., Trump's use of H-2B visas was questioned by Rubio, Ted Cruz, and some media outlets. H-2B visas allow American businesses to hire foreign workers, if they meet certain criteria.[9] According to an August 2015 Reuters report, "Trump owns companies that have sought to import at least 1,100 foreign workers on temporary visas since 2000, according to U.S. Department of Labor data reviewed by Reuters. Most of the applications were approved, the data show."[6]
Trump denied all allegations that he used foreign workers residing in the country illegally on any of his construction projects, and he said that he hired legal foreign workers at Mar-A-Lago because it was difficult to find enough workers to staff the luxury club. When asked why he requested the visas during a September 2015 interview on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe," Trump replied, "Because during the season, Mar-A-Lago, it’s a seasonal job, which is very hard to get people in Florida for seasonal jobs. And during the season in Palm Beach, Palm Beach is probably maybe the hottest real estate, maybe in the world. And during the season in Palm Beach, it’s very, very hard to get help. You can’t, we’re talking about Mar-A-Lago, the club is closed for the summer. You know the expression, 'Rich people don’t like heat.' And we close Mar-A-Lago, and we open October — like October 1st. And from that, for about a five-month period, during what they call the Palm Beach season, which is a big deal, you can’t get help. So we tend to get help from different places, including Europe, and we’ve been doing that. And by the way, these are all legal visas, you understand that, Mike. These are all legal visas. But they — we have to bring people in, which tells you, I mean, you can have jobs out there, in certain communities that are doing well. But in Palm Beach, getting help in Palm Beach during the season is almost impossible. So we go through a very legal process, and we bring people in through legal visas."[10]
What is the H-2B visa program?
According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, "The H-2B program allows U.S. employers or U.S. agents who meet specific regulatory requirements to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary nonagricultural jobs."[9] The tourism industry often uses the H-2B program to hire foreign nationals who are "low-skill, nonfarm workers" to work as waiters, bartenders, gardeners, landscapers, and maids.[7][11]
The maximum number of H-2B visas issued per fiscal year is 66,000, as set by Congress.[9] From 2009-2013, the majority of workers using H-2B visas were from Mexico.[12]
In order to participate in the H-2B program, an employer must demonstrate that:[9]
- "There are not enough U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available to do the temporary work."
- "Employing H-2B workers will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers."
- "Its need for the prospective worker’s services or labor is temporary.” A need is considered temporary if filling a position is a one-time occurrence, is a seasonal position, is a peakload position or an intermittent position."
Abuses
A March 2015 Government Accountability Office (GAO) study found that there were several areas of abuse concerning the H-2A and H-2B visas. (H-2A visas are for agricultural jobs.) Workers, federal officials, and advocacy groups told the GAO that, in some cases, third-party recruiters gave workers false information about jobs, charged them illegal recruitment fees, and gave them loans with high interest rates to pay for pre-employment expenses. According to the GAO, "Borrowing money at high interest rates to pay these fees can result in debt bondage, a possible indicator of human trafficking. Because of the need to repay these debts, workers are generally more willing to put up with poor work conditions or abusive situations, some NGO representatives said."[12]
The GAO also found that once a worker made it into the country, some called the National Human Trafficking Resource Center to complain about "wrongful termination and hazardous, unsafe, and unsanitary working conditions." Workers interviewed by the GAO "experienced or witnessed a variety of alleged abuses, such as verbal or physical abuse, confiscation of identification documents, poor or unsafe conditions in the working or living environment, and problems with hours worked or pay rate, including no overtime pay and unfair paycheck deductions." Although some workers were willing to share their experiences with the GAO, the report noted that "One disincentive to reporting abuse is that workers can only work for the employer who petitioned for them. This requirement can make workers fear retaliation if they complain about mistreatment because the workers do not have the choice of working for another employer."[12]
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club
An August 2015 Reuters investigation into Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club found that the resort’s management "has sought...787 workers since 2006," and in August 2015, the club "applied to import 70 foreign workers to serve as cooks, wait staff and cleaners," according to data collected from the U.S. Department of Labor.[6]
In a similar investigation, The New York Times found that American workers were repeatedly overlooked by Trump’s luxury club in favor of foreign workers. “Since 2010, nearly 300 United States residents have applied or been referred for jobs as waiters, waitresses, cooks and housekeepers there. But according to federal records, only 17 have been hired. In all but a handful of cases, Mar-a-Lago sought to fill the jobs with hundreds of foreign guest workers from Romania and other countries.”[7]
When Trump was asked why Mar-a-Lago hires so many foreign workers, he said that there were not enough qualified American workers to fill the positions. Trump said, “The only reason they wouldn’t get a callback is that they weren’t qualified, for some reason. There are very few qualified people during the high season in the area. … I want to protect our borders. I also want to protect our businesses. They have to come in legally, and then they go back. Certain areas, in really successful areas, where we can’t get help, many people do that. That’s a good thing. Otherwise, you hurt your business.”[7]
Tom Veenstra, senior director of support services at CareerSource in Palm Beach County, disputed Trump’s claim, saying, “We have hundreds of qualified applicants for jobs like those.”[7]
Trump International Hotel, Washington D.C.
In August 2013, Donald and Ivanka Trump, Trump’s daughter, signed "a 60-year lease with the federal government" for the Old Post Office Pavilion in downtown Washington, D.C.[13] In July 2014, The Trump Organization broke ground on the $200 million redevelopment of the building.[14]
After signing the lease, Trump said that he would hire "as many folks from the area as we can" to work on the project.[13] However, a July 2015 Washington Post report revealed that Trump "may be relying on some undocumented workers to finish the $200 million hotel...according to several who work there."[8]
Interviews with 15 of the site’s workers "revealed that many of them had crossed the U.S-Mexico border illegally," and that many of them were upset by Trump’s controversial remarks about Mexico sending "rapists" and drugs to America.[15]
One worker commented on Trump’s remarks saying, "Most of the concern is that this escalates into a bigger problem. He might come one day and pretty much tell us to get the heck out of here."[8]
Another said, "Do you think that when we’re hanging out there from the eighth floor that we’re raping or selling drugs? We’re risking our lives and our health. A lot of the chemicals we deal with are toxic."[8]
A worker interviewed by NBC News defended his colleagues, saying, "They've come here to work, to get ahead, not to do anything bad. All the ones I know, at least, are workers, not rapists."[16]
Michael D. Cohen, executive vice president and legal counsel to Trump, explained that it is the contractor’s responsibility to verify the status of each worker, not Trump’s. He also questioned the veracity of the workers’ comments. Cohen said, "Mr. Trump, who is the 100 percent owner of the Old Post Office, hired one of the largest contractors in the world to act as the general contractor. That company is Lend Lease. They then go out and employ subcontractors to work for them. The obligation to check all workers on site is exclusive to Lend Lease. This of course assumes that the assertion regarding the employees’ status is accurate."[8]
Trump International Hotel Washington D.C. was completed in Fall 2016.[14]
Trump Tower
Former presidential candidate Marco Rubio said that if Trump was going to take responsibility for making immigration a major focus of the election, he should also take responsibility for being "fined for hiring people to work on" his "projects illegally" when the issue of immigration reform was discussed during the February 25, 2016, GOP debate. Rubio took another shot at Trump’s hiring practices later in the debate when he said, "If he builds the wall [along the U.S.-Mexico border] the way he built Trump Towers, he'll be using illegal immigrant labor to do it."[3]
Rubio was referring to Trump’s use of “150-odd Polish immigrants — most working illegally, some without full pay” to build Trump Tower. According to NBC News, Wendy Sloan, the attorney “who sued Trump and his contractor for union pension violations on the project,” said, "It's constructed on the blood, sweat and tears of the Polish Brigade, as they were known in the industry.”[4]
When asked about the Polish workers, Trump said it was the contractor’s fault, and he added, "I didn't do anything wrong. I wouldn't do anything different."[4]
Diduck v. Kaszycki & Sons Contractors, Inc.
In 1983, Harry Diduck brought a class action lawsuit against Kaszycki & Sons Contractors, John Senyshyn, a trustee of the House Wreckers' Union Local 95, Donald Trump, and Trump-Equitable Fifth Avenue Company for failing to pay pension and welfare funds to the worker’s union.[17]
Trump’s contractor hired members of the local union and non-union, undocumented Polish workers to demolish the Bonwit Teller building to make room for Trump Tower. According to court documents, the Polish workers worked "off the books,...[n]o records were kept, no Social Security or other taxes were withheld, and they were not paid in accordance with wage laws. … They were told they would be paid $4.00 or in some cases $5.00 an hour for working 12-hour shifts seven days a week. In fact they were paid irregularly and incompletely.”[17]
In 1991, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Charles Stewart ruled that “there is strong evidence of tacit agreement by the parties (Kaszycki, Senyshyn, and the Trump defendants) to employ the Polish workers and to deprive them of the benefits ordinarily accorded to non-union workers on a union job, including contributions to the funds based on their wages.” Trump had to pay the workers unpaid contributions in the amount of $325,415.84 plus interest and attorney's fees and costs.[17]
Trump appealed the ruling, and he settled the lawsuit in 1999. According to The New York Daily News, “Neither side would give specifics” about the settlement, but Wendy Sloan, Diduk’s lawyer, said, “It has been resolved on terms agreeable to both sides.”[18]
Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term Foreign + workers + at + Trump + entities
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Fox News, "Trump Defends Mass Deportation Vow: 'I'll Test 14th Amendment in Court'," accessed March 7, 2016
- ↑ Fox Business', "Donald Trump: I Will Be the Greatest Jobs President God Ever Created," accessed March 7, 2016
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Washington Post, "The CNN-Telemundo Republican debate transcript, annotated," accessed February 29, 2016
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 NBC News, “Trump Tower Got Its Start With Undocumented Foreign Workers,” accessed March 7, 2016
- ↑ National Review, “Donald Trump Thinks American Workers Aren’t Good Enough for the Trump Organization,” accessed March 5, 2016
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Reuters, "Exclusive: Donald Trump's companies have sought visas to import at least 1,100 workers," accessed March 4, 2016
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 The New York Times, “Donald Trump to Foreign Workers for Florida Club: You’re Hired,” accessed March 4, 2016
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 The Washington Post, “At Trump hotel site, immigrant workers wary,” accessed March 5, 2016
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, "H-2B Temporary Non-Agricultural Workers," accessed march 8, 2016
- ↑ Breitbart, “Trump: I Hired Foreign Workers At Mar-A-Lago Because ‘It’s Very, Very Hard’ To Get Seasonal Workers,” accessed March 4, 2016
- ↑ BuzzFeed, “The New American Slavery,” accessed March 4, 2016
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Government Accountability Office, “H-2A and H-2B Visa Programs: Increased Protections Needed for Foreign Workers,” accessed March 8, 2016
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 The Washington Post, “Donald and Ivanka Trump unveil plans for glitzy hotel at Old Post Office Pavilion,” accessed March 5, 2016
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Trump Hotels, “Groundbreaking for Trump International Hotel, Washington, D.C.,” accessed March 9, 2016
- ↑ Fox News, "Trump stands by statements on Mexican illegal immigrants, surprised by backlash," accessed October 20, 2015
- ↑ NBC News, “Workers Building Trump Hotel Present Different Immigrant Image,” accessed March 9, 2016
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Justia.com, “Diduck v. Kaszycki & Sons Contractors, Inc.,” accessed March 8, 2016
- ↑ The New York Daily News, "Deal Sealed in Trump Tower Suit," accessed March 22, 2016
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