Department of Labor records show that The Trump Organization’s Mar-a-Lago club submitted a request on July 5th to hire 40 foreign servers and 21 cooks through the H-2B visa program, which has seen overwhelming demand this year. A BuzzFeed News report questioned the ethics of inviting Trump club members for tours of Air Force One, but the White House cited that as in keeping with a long-standing practice for friends and family.
The Trump Organization has asked for permission to hire 61 foreign guest workers to cook and serve at Mar-a-Lago, its private club in Palm Beach, Fla., Vox.com reported.
The club submitted the request on July 5th to the Department of Labor, according to the agency’s records, Vox.com reported. The club asked to hire 40 foreign servers for $12.68 an hour, and 21 cooks for $13.31 an hour from October through May 2019. That’s five more servers and one more cook than the club requested last year, Vox.com noted.
While the Trump administration’s first year and a half in office has been defined by efforts to curtail nearly every avenue of immigration into the United States (both legal and illegal) and to restrict visas available for temporary foreign workers, the H-2B visa program, which several Trump Organization clubs use to hire workers, is the one visa program that has been expanded during the Trump presidency, Vox.com noted.
At the end of May, the Trump administration announced that it would provide an extra 15,000 H-2B visas (beyond the 66,000 annual cap) for businesses that needed to hire foreign workers through the summer. It did the same thing last year, Vox.com noted.
The H-2B visa program allows seasonal, non-agricultural employers, such as hotels and ski resorts, to hire foreign workers when they can’t find American ones, and to get permission to hire workers under the H-2B program, Mar-a-Lago’s hiring managers will need to show that they were unable to find U.S. workers to take the jobs, Vox.com reported.
C&RB reported in June that the H-2B Visa program has received overwhelming demand this year, leading to a lottery system (http://clubandresortbusiness.com/2018/06/overwhelming-demand-leads-latest-h-2b-visa-lottery/)
One other Trump property has also asked for permission to hire foreign guest workers this year, Vox.com reported—Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., asked the Labor Department in March to hire four cooks and 10 servers for the summer season. Those requests were approved a few weeks later.
A Vox.com analysis of hiring records for seasonal workers at three Trump properties in New York and Florida revealed that only one out of 144 jobs went to a U.S. worker from 2016 to the end of 2017, and that foreign guest workers with H-2B visas got the rest.
Twelve U.S. workers did apply for some of the 144 positions advertised across the three properties, the Vox.com analysis showed, but only one was hired.
For Vox.com’s full report, go to https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/7/9/17548776/trump-h-2b-guest-workers
In another report, BuzzFeed News reported that some members of Trump Organization clubs in Florida, including Mar-a-Lago, appear to have been invited to an Air Force One tour last year, according to an invitation obtained by BuzzFeed News that was cross-checked with records received through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The club members who were invited would not confirm or deny that they actually attended, but the invitations raised more questions, BuzzFeed News said in its report, about the blurry line between Trump’s administration and his family’s private businesses.
Although past administrations have given Air Force One tours to friends, family, and even donors, in this case, those attending would have paid Trump’s exclusive clubs thousands of dollars annually, BuzzFeed News noted.
Two separate tours were scheduled at the Atlantic Aviation Fixed-Base Operation at Palm Beach International airport for 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. on Feb. 18, 2017, hours before Trump held his first 2020 campaign rally less than 120 miles away at the Orlando Melbourne International Airport hangar, BuzzFeed News reported.
Stephanie Grisham, a spokeswoman at the time for the White House who now works for First Lady Melania Trump, said in an e-mail sent in response to BuzzFeed News’ inquiry about the tours that “It is common for friends/family of the President to receive tours of Air Force One.”
“This is something that has been done in past administrations going back years and is not out of the ordinary,” Grisham added, noting that that if invitations were extended to long-time club members, “then they are also most likely long-time friends of the President.”
For Buzz Feed News’ full report, go to https://www.buzzfeed.com/tariniparti/trump-air-force-one-mar-a-lago-tour?utm_term=.ulPOoA3XZ&bftwnews#.xg5jp2Bq8
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