Two women who worked for years at President Donald Trump's national golf club in Bedminster say they were both hired as housekeepers despite lacking legal citizenship.
Sandra Diaz and Victorina Moralez first told the New York Times Thursday about their experience working at the resort as undocumented women. Though they say they do not believe President Trump was aware of the illegal hiring practices used to bring them on board, they say they are choosing to speak out in response to the president’s public comments equating Latin American immigrants with violent criminals.
In a sit-down interview with CNN, Morales says she was hired in 2013. Diaz says she worked there from 2010 through 2013 and has since become a legal permanent resident of the United States. Both claim that managers, employed by the Trump organization, knowingly hired them as undocumented workers.
Diaz says she decided to go public in part because of what she calls a high level of hypocrisy. She says that while the president launches such hardline immigration rhetoric, his organization is doing the complete opposite – she says that managers at the property went as far as to arrange for fraudulent documents to keep them employed.
Similarly, Morales shared that she was taken to an offsite location after being hired. She says that it was there that she was provided with a counterfeit social security card and identification.
The undocumented Guatemalan also alleges that she was subjected to demeaning verbal assaults by her superior, noting that after Donald Trump became president, the housekeeping manager became more aggressive toward the employees. She describes being threatened with deportation repeatedly.
The women's attorney Anibal Romero says that they are prepared to provide proof to authorities if an investigation into the Trump organization's hiring practices is launched. “We have documentary evidence, we have the testimony of workers, we have the fraudulent documents - all of this could be provided to federal authorities and or state authorities,” he says. “Both of my clients are willing to cooperate with federal and state authorities."
A spokeswoman from the Trump organization has since released a statement in response to the claims that reads, "We have tens of thousands of employees across our properties and have very strict hiring practices. If any employee submitted false documentation in an attempt to circumvent the law, they will be terminated immediately."
No public criminal or civil actions have been filed against the Trump organization regarding the allegations from Morales, Diaz and two other women mentioned by the New York Times.