Report: Undocumented workers hired, fired, at Trump property in Camden County
About five workers at the president's golf course in Camden County were recently dismissed or told not to report to work again, the New York Times reported.
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Officials at a Trump golf course in Camden County declined Monday to discuss a report that they had fired several undocumented workers, one of whom had been employed for 16 years.
“I’m sorry sir, we have no comment,” said a worker, who then hung up the phone at Trump National Golf Club-Philadelphia in Pine Hill.
About five workers were recently dismissed or told not to report to work again, including two seasonal employees who were not scheduled to work until spring, the New York Times reported, citing people familiar with the terminations. The dismissals showed that President Donald Trump’s family business employed undocumented workers more broadly than was previously thought, the newspaper said.
The Pine Hill club was the third Trump property where workers have been fired since the Times reported in December that the club in Bedminster, N.J., had for years employed undocumented immigrants. The company dismissed about a dozen people in Bedminster after the story appeared, as well as a dozen at the Trump National Golf Club-Westchester, located in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.
The firings in South Jersey resulted from a broader audit that the company is conducting at its properties, the newspaper reported.
The revelations of undocumented workers at Trump properties come as the president continues to stoke opposition to immigration, accusing undocumented immigrants of bringing crime and drugs into the United States, and insisting the country must built a wall on the Mexican border.
The Trump company told the Times it had been fooled by workers using false identification, but some Bedminster employees said management knew of the fake documents but allowed the people to keep working.
On Monday, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) wrote to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and FBI Director Christopher Wray to ask for an investigation into “alleged crimes” committed at the Trump golf clubs in Bedminster, N.J., and Westchester County, N.Y. Last week the senator met with four fired golf club workers.
Leaders of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, a statewide advocacy group, could not be reached for comment on the firings at Pine Hill. Efforts to contact attorneys at the New Jersey chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association were unsuccessful.
The golf course is about a mile east of Camden County College’s main campus in Blackwood. The property features an 18-hole course, pool, restaurant, and clubhouse suitable for weddings and galas, according to its website, which promotes “a new generation of style and service.”