Dozens of undocumented immigrants have been fired from their jobs at Trump properties in recent months, suggesting the Trump Organization’s practice of hiring workers without legal status was wider spread than believed, according to a new report.
Several undocumented workers were dismissed last month from President Trump’s golf club in Pine Hill, N.J., known as the Trump National Golf Club Philadelphia, according to The New York Times. It was the third property to fire workers over their immigration status since reports first arose in December of undocumented migrants working at the Trump club in Bedminster, N.J., for years.
{mosads}The president’s personal properties went on to fire about a dozen workers at the Bedminster property as well as about a dozen others at the Trump National Golf Club Westchester in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.
Sources familiar with the situation told The Times that five workers at the Pine Hill property were fired or told not to report to work again.
The revelations have come as a stark contrast to the tough stances the president has taken in the White House with regards to immigration, including efforts to curtail the asylum process and suggesting he may declare a national emergency to build a wall on the southern border.
The company claimed it had been fooled and that employees had lied about their immigration status. However, some of the migrants told The Times that the company was aware that they were undocumented and that their documentation was fake.
Some employees told the firings at the Pine Hill property were abrupt.
“Just like that, I got fired,” Victor Reyes, a Mexican migrant who worked in the kitchen, told The Times.
“The manager called me and asked, ‘Victor, are you legal?’ I said, ‘No, I am not legal.’ It surprised me because I knew he knew that I was illegal. I have worked for him 16 years and then he asks me.”
The company is currently undergoing an audit at its properties. The Trump organization said it was using a system known as E-verify to ensure it was only hiring those who were in the country illegally, but the system was mostly used for its hotels and not golf courses.
“I must say, for me personally, this whole thing is truly heartbreaking,” Eric Trump, an executive vice president with the Trump Organization, said in a statement on Tuesday. “Our employees are like family, but when presented with fake documents, an employer has little choice.”
He added that the problem was not unique to the Trump Organization and “demonstrates that our immigration system is severely broken and needs to be fixed immediately.”
The scrutiny comes as House Democrats are mulling opening inquiries into the business to further probe possible financial violations by Trump and his family.