Trump Golf Club fired 12 workers illegally living in the United States, lawyer says

Jan. January 28, 2019, 04:33 GMT

From Kate Snow and Tim Stelloh

Two former workers at President Donald Trump's golf club in Westchester County, NY, declared believe that people at the highest levels of the club knew that they were hiring workers who lived illegally in the United States.

Twelve people living illegally in the country who worked at Trump National Golf Club were fired earlier this month, workers told NBC News and their lawyer Sunday.

The Washington Post was the first to report the New York club.

Gabriel Sedano, a former long-time maintenance worker at Trump's Westchester club, was one of nine former workers interviewed by NBC News. He stated that he was the first in the group to discover that he had no more work.

Sedano said that a club official had told him Jan. 17 that he had a meeting the next day, but Sedano did not know what it was.

Sedano remembers that he was asked if he was legally in the United States during the meeting.

"I told them no, so … after that, they will not allow it." I said. "I started crying because I had told them, for example, that I had been working for so long."

"The only thing I did wrong was work, work, and work." , he added.

After the meeting, Sedano met other workers in the club's laundry and told them which had happened.

was a bit scared and upset, "he said." Some of them [were] were crying. "

Sedano, who illegally entered the United States with his family in 2003, was stated that it was easy to find a job at Trump two years later, the club needed so many employees, he said, he thought, that officials had not thoroughly checked false social security cards and fraudulent green cards provided by him and other workers It is illegal for workers to submit false documents.

Trump, he added, "must have known that his clubs had hired them. It is illegal for workers to submit false documents.

Although Sedano considered the president as friendly – he said Trump once gave him a tip of $ 200 while he was cleaning the club's railings – he said he was offended by the way the president had described undocumented immigrants as criminals or worse during the election campaign and in speeches.

he said that he was expecting something since the announcement of a new occurrence last month that the Trump Organization – the holding company that groups together the hundreds of President's businesses – reportedly employed undocumented immigrants at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

At least one former employee told NBC News that a manager had helped her obtain false legal documents. Several other employees reported being able to obtain fake legal documents submitted by friends from their community to club officers.

"We knew it was going to happen," Sedano said.

Another employee, Margarita Cruz, was informed by telephone on January 18, she had been let go. She recorded the call and, in an audio clip obtained by NBC News, a manager can be heard: "The club must end its working relationship with you today."

In a statement released on Sunday, Eric Trump – who with him with Donald Trump Jr. took over the management of their father's businesses two years ago – said the Trump Organization was following "very strict" practices to hiring "tens of thousands of employees".

"If an employee submits false documents trying to circumvent the law, they will be immediately deleted," he said. "We take this problem very seriously. This is one of the reasons why my father is fighting so hard for an immigration reform. The system is down.

The workers' lawyer, Anibal Romero, said he had asked the federal authorities to review the hiring practices of the Westchester Club. He also brought workers to Washington on Sunday to meet Congressional Democrats