Trump Construction Project Reportedly Employs Undocumented Workers, and They’re Pissed
In perhaps the most predictable development in world history, the Washington Post found undocumented immigrants working on a Trump hotel construction project in Washington D.C.
Equally unsurprising, those workers know of his comments calling undocumented immigrants rapists and murderers, and don’t appreciate them.
“Do you think that when we’re hanging out there from the eighth floor that we’re raping or selling drugs?” one worker from El Salvador said to the Post. “We’re risking our lives and our health. A lot of the chemicals we deal with are toxic.”
The Post reported that most of the workers had been naturalized, but that some had not obtained citizenship:
“The majority of us are Hispanics, many who came illegally,” Arellano said in Spanish. “And we’re all here working very hard to build a better life for our families.”
…Several of the men, who hail mostly from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, have earned U.S. citizenship or legal status through immigration programs targeting Central Americans fleeing civil wars or natural disasters. Others quietly acknowledged that they remain in the country illegally.
“Most of the concern is that this escalates into a bigger problem,” said Daniel Gonzalez, 45, a sheet metal worker from El Salvador who crossed the border in the 1980s to escape his country’s civil war. He became a U.S. citizen after a federal immigration judge granted him asylum, he said.
“He might come one day and pretty much tell us to get the heck out of here,” Gonzalez said of Trump.
Celebrity plutocrat Donald Trump has lost a number of major business deals since his comments about undocumented immigrants three weeks ago, and has accused those businesses of countenancing illegal immigration.
“It’s something ironic,” said another worker, who had obtained citizenship through marriage. “The majority of us are Hispanics, many who came illegally. And we’re all here working very hard to build a better life for our families.”
Trump’s spokespeople said he obeyed all hiring laws, but his legal counsel quickly shifted any blame for hiring undocumented workers onto the contractor.
[h/t Washington Post]
[Image via screengrab]
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