President Donald Trump’s National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, has long been a destination for America’s elite. New reports suggest it also employs the very undocumented citizens that Trump railed against during his 2016 Presidential campaign and beyond. Photo courtesy of Ekem & Wikimedia Commons.
by Jocelyn Pinedo, COLUMNIST
12 December 2018
The hypocrisy is unreal.
Time after time President Trump has put down immigrants and painted them as criminals. He tries to rid the country of undocumented citizens and continues to push them out, yet his own preachings do not seem to apply to the President himself. As long as what he does ends up earning him money the rules don’t apply.
Victorina Morales has worked at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, according to a report published by the New York Times on December 6th, as a housekeeper for more than five years as an undocumented citizen. She received a certificate from the White House with her name inscribed for her work, and when the President would visit she was required to wear a pin adorned with the secret service logo.
The effort being put into making Morales look very presidential for a lady without paper seems like the opposite of what Trump normally preaches.
Morales is not alone, according to another Times report published on December 8th. She and multiple other workers are also undocumented and employed by Mr. Trump. Sandra Diaz was also a undocumented when working at the Gulf Club and has now become a legal resident of the United States. Two more workers have also come out to say they worked for the Golf Club without any legal papers.
Gilberta Dominguez and Floridalma Bautista stated that they presented the company fake work documents, yet the woman interviewing both Dominguez and Bautista told them to not discuss their legal status. Just like that they were hired and the staff was aware of their stance in the country.
Supervisors of the place of employment also went out of their way to obtain a fake green card and social security number to keep the workers on the job. So much for not wanting illegal immigrants working in the country.
To both of their understandings the majority of people didn’t have papers to begin with. The earnings for the workers were $10 an hour with unfavorable shifts and were often the subjects of insulting comments. They cleaned the Presidential family’s clothing as well as ironed both President Trump and First Lady Melania’s clothes.
Trump has taken more actions to make sure immigrants are kept or taken out of the United States. With the building of the wall at Mexico’s border to increasing security at the border. He has started work raids to capture any paperless workers. He has implemented an electronic verification system, E-Verify, to make sure only documented people are allowed to work. He boasts about having less immigrants working thanks to his actions, but in his own corporations he has paperless citizens working for him.
As a result of this, families have been left without any income. Family members are being left stuck and unable to provide for the needs of a family. Kids are often left without parents after raids occur.
During Trump’s campaign Morales was still reporting to her job at the Golf Club despite the President saying he didn’t have “one illegal immigrant on the job.”
Funny how his policies don’t apply to himself.
The President continues to bash the Hispanic community, making us seem like we are lesser than everyone else. His hurtful comments being directed towards any race that’s not his own.
His hurtful words towards the immigrants in this country is what drove Morales and the rest of the ladies to speak out. Trump has tried to make us look like rapist, murderers, criminals of all sorts putting the hispanic community down, turning other against us. Spreading hate instead of love. His comments have started to finally backfire on him.
As a resulting from the comments the President continues to make, the worker came out to tell their stories and to expose how much of a hypocrite the Mr. Trump really is. They are tires of the verbal abuse and insults constantly being thrown at them from staff and from Trump himself.
The White House has declined to comment on the matter of knowing there was undocumented workers and face the truth of what goes on behind closed doors.
Coming out with their stories has come with a cost and the workers knew the risk of exposing what is going on. The Trump Organization came out with a statement that said that any worker found without any legal authorization would be terminated. Morales and any undocumented worker that was employed at the Golf Club also run the risk of being deported now that their status is public.
Morales is now seeking asylum for herself and her family. Five years ago her father in law was killed in Guatemala while being extorted for money since he had family members in the United States. This could give more of a case for her family in order to be granted asylum but nothing is for sure.
The amount of undocumented citizen living in the country reaches nearly 11 million and of those 8 million are employed. These immigrants are vital for certain jobs such as construction and agriculture since most people would not take these positions. We are no longer staying silent on what is being done to us.
No more secrets. The truth will come out.
Jocelyn Pinedo is a columnist for Oswego East High School’s online news magazine the Howl.