Trump Organization Ups Its Reliance On Foreign Workers

7 months ago

Despite taking a hard-line stance on immigration, Donald Trump has long been more accommodating of temporary foreign workers–which his business uses extensively. Forbes staff writer Zach Everson joins Brittany Lewis on "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss.

Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacheverson/2024/05/20/trump-organization-foreign-workers-mar-a-lago/

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Let's read your most recent headline from your most recent investigation Trump organization ups its reliance on foreign workers

00:08So let's talk about first how this is at odds with his past policy

00:12sentiment and stance on immigration

00:16Build the wall send them back travel ban, you know, there's no shortage of examples in Donald Trump's

00:23politics of

00:24Trying to position us against them in terms of Americans versus outsiders

00:30He's taken some very tough stances against immigration yet. His businesses rely on short-term foreign labor

00:37to

00:38operate

00:40At the height of the pandemic when he was still president

00:43He signed an executive order temporarily barring the entry of immigrant workers on a host of employment based visas

00:50So why does the Trump?

00:52Organization choose to hire foreign workers opposed to American citizens

00:56Um, you know, it's it's an excellent question. I've reached out to them. They did not get back to me

01:00They're only supposed to be able to do it when they cannot find American citizens to do that labor

01:05And that's you know, they've been doing this since at least 2008

01:08So obviously an employment right now is very low, but that has not always been the case going back to 2008. So

01:14You know, it's it's speculated just cheaper. I don't know exactly what they would be paying US workers

01:19But you know, it's it's been a reliable source of employees for them over the past 16 years

01:25So from what you're saying, this practice is legal, but can you go over the policies of retaining temporary foreign workers?

01:32Yeah, it's it's complicated and it's a pain and it involves three different government agencies

01:38So first the business has to get certified by the Department of Labor that they can in fact have

01:44short-term foreign labor

01:46Then they have to apply to the Department of Homeland Security for them to approve a specific number of people

01:51So each year the Trump Organization and all the other businesses that do this have to say this is the amount of employees we want

01:58And then the Department of Homeland Security will certify that number

02:02maybe tell them it's a little bit less than what they wanted and then the

02:07People who are who are matched up with those jobs then have to go to a US State Department Embassy or

02:13Council it in their own country to get their visa. So you've got three different departments there and

02:18State government gets a little bit involved as well. And how many foreign workers is the Trump Organization hiring?

02:26This year they are actually for 2023. They were looking for 170. We don't know exactly how many are hired

02:33We just know the amount that they were given

02:36Permission to hire and that information is just out there on the Department of Labor website

02:40You can get these spreadsheets that will show they updated quarterly on the Navy's

02:45And it's it's split up amongst two different types of visas. There's the h2a visa, which is for

02:51Agricultural workers and that's what the Trumps use for people to come work at their Virginia winery

02:56And then there's the h2b which is service and hospitality

03:00That's going to be your your housekeepers your servers your chefs at Mar-a-Lago and some of the golf clubs. I

03:06Want to note that your headline says up to

03:09It's reliance you said earlier that the Trump Organization has been hiring foreign workers since at least 2008

03:15Have they also hired?

03:17Undocumented immigrants talk about that

03:20Yeah, there was a Washington Post article several years ago that I think was able to track down 49

03:26Former or undocumented workers who had been employed at Trump properties some of them for decades

03:31So they had been working in the United States for a couple of years

03:34And then there was a Washington Post article that I think was also able to track down

03:3949 former or undocumented workers who had been employed at Trump properties some of them for decades

03:46So they have a history of of that as well

Trump Organization Ups Its Reliance On Foreign Workers

Category

Transcript

Recommended