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Jonathan O. Connell
Journalist specializing in economic development focused on commercial real estate and the Trump Organization
Elise Viebeck
Journalist of Business and Investigations Centered on politics
Tracy Jan
Reporter the intersection of race and the economy
President Trump's company plans to Introduce E-Verify, a federal program that allows employers to check whether new employees are legally entitled to work in the United States. , in each of its golf clubs, hotels and resorts, following a Washington Post report that its Westchester County Club, in the state of New York, employed immigrants without papers for years.
"We will set up now E-Verify on all our properties. Eric Trump, one of the president's sons and executive vice president of the Trump organization, said Tuesday that the company was currently using this program only in certain locations. "We start with the golf properties and we will do all of them."
This move is the first recognition by the president's private company that she has failed to verify the status of all its employees. despite Trump's statements during the 2016 campaign that he used E-Verify on his properties. At the time, he had called for the program to be mandatory for all employers.
The Trump Organization's decision is not likely to prevent calls for an investigation by Congressional Democrats, who began Tuesday to collect signatures for a letter to the FBI. Director Christopher A. Wray is looking into whether the president's business has broken the law by hiring undocumented workers.
The company's new membership of E-Verify highlights the profound gap between Trump's radical rhetoric about undocumented immigrants – including his bleak warnings that they threaten the country's security and steal jobs Americans – and what seems to have been a lax attitude on the part of his own company to verify the legal status of its workers.
The Post reported Saturday that a dozen undocumented workers from Latin America had employed a job. by the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County – about half of its staff in the winter – were fired as a result of further scrutiny
The purge followed what Eric Trump told The Post: "A huge effort to identify any employee who gave false and fraudulent documents to get a job illegally."
[Trump’s golf course employed undocumented workers — and then fired them amid showdown over border wall]
Many fired individuals had worked for the club for years., Including an Ecuadorian maintenance worker who stated that they had been employed for nearly two decades, with several workers saying that supervisors were not paying attention to their employment documents and, in at least one case, had urged an employee to obtain better forged documents. [19659013] Another group of undocumented workers employed by the Trump Golf Course in New Jersey has also been fired recently. e that a supervisor helped her to obtain false documents.
The two clubs, like six other Trump golf courses, are not registered in the E-Verify system, according to a federal database that lists the employers who use it, and confirmed by Eric Trump. The system is used by several Trump properties, including one in North Carolina.
A workbook given to one of the undocumented immigrants who worked at the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester, NY (Carolyn Van Houten / The Washington Post) [19659016] President Trump still owns his businesses, which include 16 golf courses and 11 hotels worldwide. He entrusted daily control of activities to his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump
In an interview with The Post on Tuesday, the president declined to say why the Westchester County club had employed undocumented workers and this, recently.
"That's why we have to fix our immigration system," Trump said during a phone interview. "I am a big supporter of allowing people to come to our country, but they must enter legally."
The President did not answer directly to the question of why he did not have much used E-Verify at its premises. [19659020] As a candidate in 2016, Trump said in a speech in Arizona: "We will ensure that E-Verify is used to the fullest extent possible under current law and we will work with Congress to strengthen and expand its use across the country. . "
The same year, Trump told MSNBC host Chris Matthews:" I use E-Verify for almost every job. . . . I use E-Verify and I will tell you that it works. "
Once in office, Trump's silence on an E-Verify national warrant disappointed some conservatives.
On Tuesday, Eric Trump told The Post that the company had not already has registered all of its resorts and golf courses in E-Verify because the program is not required by law in most states, many competitors do not use it and the system does not. is not foolproof.
Eric Trump said the Trump organization was relying on a third-party vendor, Hire Right, to check the background of some of his property, notably at Ferry Point (19659025), the New York-based Trump in the Bronx held that E-Verify is being used on its golf courses in Los Angeles, Doral, Florida, and Charlotte (in North Carolina, the law requires employers to verify the legal status of most workers.)
The son The President said that the rest of the Trump Organization's properties subscribed to E-Verify but had been delayed by the partial closure of the government, a 35-day deadlock caused by his father's request to create a wall at the border for prevent undocumented immigrants.
He denies that officials of the Trump Organization helped workers obtain false papers.
Eric Trump stated that some of the dismissed workers had been fired. for years and knew the family members personally.
"I have to say, for myself personally, that this is really heartbreaking," Trump said. "Our employees are like family, but when they are presented with false documents, an employer has little choice."
"This situation is not unique to the Trump Organization, it is a situation to which all businesses are facing, "he added. "This shows that our immigration system is badly damaged and needs to be repaired immediately."
The Federal Employment Verification System, set up more than 20 years ago, allows employers enter the name and personal information of new employees into a system. this corresponds to the information contained in the registers of the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.
[Trump isn’t pushing hard for this popular way to curb illegal immigration]
It has proven effective in reducing the number of undocumented workers hired by US employers. In Arizona, which initiated mandatory controls in 2008, the number of unauthorized workers fell by 33% compared to what had been projected without obligation, according to an analysis conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas in 2017. [19659030Howeveronly10%oftheUnitedStatesisconcernedemployersareregisteredwithE-VerifyItsuseisvoluntaryinmoststatesOnlyeightstatesrequirethissystemtobeusedbyalmostallemployers:AlabamaArizonaGeorgiaMississippiNorthCarolinaSouthCarolinaTennesseeandUtah
According to immigration officials, E-Verify does not protect against the theft of workers' identities. Social security information on the other hand or other forms of identification, but the system provides an "additional validation" to employers to ensure that the information provided matches existing government records.
ClubCorp, the largest owner of private golf clubs in the country, has more than 200 E-Verify since 2012 throughout the company.
The National Association of Clubs, a professional group representing private clubs, encourages its members to use E-Verify, a "standard of reference" for strict compliance. said Brad Steele, vice president of government relations for the association.
"We have long supported and recommend E-Verify to our clubs," Steele said.
Proponents of stricter border control said that the discovery of undocumented immigrants working for the Trump Organization underscored the need for the requirement for electronic verification.
"This is not surprising because you are in the hospitality sector. . . There is a good chance that illegal aliens are working for you, "said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based think tank that advocates tighter immigration controls. "But you try to avoid that by using E-Verify."
This week, several recent undocumented immigrants from Trump's properties met with congressional Democrats, who began circulating a letter calling for an FBI investigation. [19659041] "I think that there have been violations of the law," said the chairman of the Natural Resources Committee of the House, Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Who wrote the letter after meeting the workers on Monday.
"The proper response to the violation of a federal law – that it is civil in some cases or criminal in others" – must be referred to the FBI, said Grijalva.
Senators Robert Menendez and Tom Malinowski, both Democrats from New Jersey, joined him. Rep. Nita M. Lowey, Democrat of New York.
"I hear, with others, urging the government to treat these people as what they are – material witnesses to what could have been a serious crime," Malinowski said. , who met the group on Monday. He added that the impetus given by Trump to the closure of the government – a so-called national crisis related to illegal immigration – is the "height of hypocrisy" given his employment of workers without papers.
"I do not use this phrase lightly, but it's the height," said Malinowski, whose district includes the Bedminster property. "That's what he shut down the government."
Menendez said Tuesday in a linguistic hubbub in Spanish language with reporters that he had met the workers that "if the president maintains that there must be consequences for others, there should be consequences for his organization, no? "
Trump organizers refused to comment on calls for an FBI investigation.
Anibal Romero, workers' lawyer, said the organization Trump may have committed immigration, tax, social security, fraud and ERISA offenses and "any attempt" to deport workers "could be considered an obstruction of justice"
"We seek protection," he said, adding that "any undocumented immigrant who worked for Donald Trump and his properties could be considered an important witness in a lawsuit brought by the federal government against the organization for knowingly hiring undocumented immigrants.
Trump's position was hypocritical.
"It's hard for me to judge Trump," said Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a declared opponent of illegal immigration. "He has a lot to do. . . . I think the action they took was appropriate and I hope that [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] was informed.
David A. Fahrenthold, Michael Kranish, Nick Miroff and Josh Partlow contributed to the writing of this report.
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