Latino

More than 100 undocumented immigrants worked at Trump’s Bedminster resort during construction: report

Dozens of immigrants who did not have legal status worked on the construction and operation of President Trump’s resort in Bedminster, N.J., according to a new report by The Washington Post.

At one time, the Post reports that more than 100 workers without legal status were under employment at the resort.

Sixteen such workers from Costa Rica and other Latin American nations spoke with The Washington Post and claimed they worked previously at the Bedmister resort illegally, while some said that at one time more than 100 workers without legal status who were employed by the organization lived together.

{mosads}“Many of us helped him get what he has today,” one Costa Rican construction worker, Dario Angulo, told the Post. “This golf course was built by illegals.”

“For me, moving to the U.S. wasn’t a very drastic change,” added Mauricio Garro, a 36-year-old maintenance worker who was employed at Bedminster until 2010. “My whole town practically lived there.”

One former housekeeper at the resort told the Post that it was known by staff that managers at the resort didn’t care about workers’ legal status.

“My friend said there was nothing to worry about. She told me, ‘They don’t care,’ ” said the housekeeper.

One woman who worked at the club told the newspaper that some workers would be hidden by managers when Trump himself arrived to dine or otherwise enjoy the resort.

“They would tell us it was because the restaurant was hosting an important event, and only the workers who could speak English could be there,” she told the Post.

The Trump Organization did not immediately return a request for comment Friday on The Washington Post’s reporting.

The company responded to past reports of workers at its resorts who did not have legal status by firing dozens from various properties in recent months, including about a dozen at the Bedminster property.

“We have tens of thousands of employees across our properties and have very strict hiring practices,” the Trump Organization said last year. “If any employee submitted false documentation in an attempt to circumvent the law, they will be terminated immediately. We take this issue very seriously.”