Trump Organization eliminating undocumented workers from Florida resorts: report

President Trump’s resorts in South Florida have reportedly begun shifting away from hiring and keeping undocumented immigrants on staff as the Trump Organization faces growing scrutiny.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that undocumented employees who worked for years at Trump properties in Florida found themselves without work this year as the company works to eliminate them from the payroll.

{mosads}One former 10-year veteran of Trump’s club in Jupiter, Fla., told the Times that he was fired this year because he could not show proper authorization to work in the United States.

“They got rid of me after so many years of hard work because I don’t have papers,” Doroteo Hernández told the Times.

Other former employees at the president’s Florida properties told the newspaper that Barnett Management, a local staffing agency through which the Trump Organization hires employees for tasks such as landscaping, laundry and maintenance, had begun looking more closely at potential employees’ legal status, a change from prior years.

“I spoke personally to the Barnett guy. He told me that, unfortunately, I didn’t qualify to stay at the club,” Roberto Carlos Méndez, a former worker at the Jupiter club, told the Times.

At least a dozen other undocumented workers told the Times similar stories about working at the Trump Organization’s Florida properties, only to find themselves without work this year.

One man, Giovanni Velásquez, reportedly said that his managers knew of his and other workers’ undocumented status, but didn’t care.

“They knew immigrants working there are here illegally,” said Velásquez of the Trump Organization management. “The know-how that I have, the work I do, can’t be easily replaced. No American wants to do it.”

The Trump Organization did not immediately return a request for comment from The Hill, and no officials at the organization responded to interview requests from the Times.

News of the reported wider cutbacks in undocumented employees in Florida comes after The Washington Post reported in February that the Trump Organization had made similar firings in New York and New Jersey.