Trump's Mar-a-Lago asks to hire 61 additional foreign workers using a visa program

There is "help wanted" at the Mar-a-Lago Club of The Trump Organization in Palm Beach, Florida. But the company is looking outside the United States to fill 61 vacancies to what the president often calls the "Winter White House".

Documents released by the Labor Department On Thursday, the club requested permission from the government to hire 40 new servers and 21 new cooks under the H-2B visa program, which allows businesses Temporarily employ foreign workers or legal immigrants if the company can fill spots with qualified Americans.

Server positions will pay a minimum of $ 12.68 at the time, and cooks will make a minimum of $ 13.31 at the time. The application for both types of workers lists a start date of October 1, 2018 and an end date of May 31, 2019.

The company's decision to hire more foreign workers follows a wider political debate raging on Trump administration's immigration policies. Last year, the Department of Homeland Security and, shortly after, Trump properties have tightened the ceiling of H-2B visas approval to hire dozens of workers.
While this practice apparently contradicts the early American economic policies of the Trump administration, President Donald Trump told ABC News that finding work in the country can be "very, very hard" during the fall months. and winter.

"This is what is called the Palm Beach Social Season," the then-candidate, Trump, told George Stephanopoulos, head of radio and television. ABC News, during an interview in 2016 in Colorado Springs. "And what we do is we sometimes have to bring people."

Joe Raedle / Getty Images, Fil

Trump also stated that even s & # 39; he does not directly manage the hiring of his properties, similar companies in Palm Beach follow the same practices. "And you know why they do that, you know why they do that, they can not get people George."

"I have a lot of other places where I do not have to do that because you have a normal season," he later added in the same interview with Stephanopoulos .

Similar documents released by the Department of Labor earlier this year indicate that Trump properties in Charlottesville, Virginia and Westchester County, NY have also asked to hire dozens of foreign workers as part of the visa program H-2B.

Since Trump declared his candidacy in 2015, companies owned or tagged by Trump have sought to employ more than 400 foreign workers under the H-2B visa, with Club Mar-a-Lago alone accounting for at least 264 of these workers. .

The Trump organization did not respond to the request for comments from ABC.