Donald Trump’s administration has devised strict policies about undocumented workers and those in the country illegally, but recently, Univision did a series of interviews with seven employees of the Trump Winery who admit they are undocumented.
The Daily Beast says that the winery in Charlottesville, Virginia would not be able to produce the 40,000 cases of wine each year without the long hours and low pay that can only be achieved by someone without the documents which allow them to work legally.
One migrant worker, who said he wanted to remain anonymous because he fears retribution, told the interviewer that he was hired with a fake Social Security card over five years ago, and none of his employers had ever checked the veracity of his documents.
“They’ve never once asked me for anything, or else I wouldn’t be here,” he said.
Another worker without documentation told the Univision interviewer that the Trump Organization is well aware that there are several undocumented workers at the Trump golf courses, in addition to the Trump Winery.
They know you are undocumented, because if you look at the Social Security papers that we give them, they’re fake. The process is simple. They give you your application, and they find a way for you to complete it.”
Trump companies literally run off of illegal immigrants and he knows it, and he is still trying to deport them. And he has literally denied jobs to AMERICANS because it is “cheaper” to have immigrants work for his industry. ? https://t.co/oWdJ4j3MSd
— M A M I (@Stalv_) May 3, 2019
On the grounds of the vineyard, there is a Trump hotel which also employs several undocumented workers, according to two former Honduran employees that worked there in housekeeping, says Univision . Marily Peña says she got the job at the hotel at the Trump Winery in 2015 before Trump was president. She says she was asked to start without a request for any documents at all.
Peña explains that before working for Trump she cleaned medical offices and was being paid $13 an hour. She had high hopes that she could get better pay and more hours working for the luxury hotel, but she was disappointed.
“I went with the hope that I was going to earn good money,” she explains. But instead, she was paid $10 an hour.
Martha Peña, Marily’s cousin, also worked at the Trump Winery in the hotel, says that nobody reported the abuses which went on regularly for fear of being deported. She says they all worked over 40 hours a week with no insurance, benefits or vacation.
“There was no overtime, at least when I worked, no benefits either… if you got sick they didn’t pay you.”
Employees say that recently, in an effort to appease employees, Trump Vineyard vouchers have been handed out, with a slogan that reads, “We Appreciate You!” It includes a sticker with the face of Eric Trump, who serves as the president of the winery while his father is in office.
