Exclusive: Donald Trump's companies have sought visas to import at least 1,100 workers

If they are legal...does it matter?

IMO – “yes” and “no”.

Let me explain why I think there are several issues – both pro and con on this issue for Trump.

1 - What Trump has said is that he is against ILLEGALS coming across our borders and being in the US ILLEAGALLY and wants them deported. He’s also made some positive statements about “legal” immigration and even some indications that he would support allowing those that had been deported to apply to come back in legally, not exactly amnesty but not necessarily barring anyone who had once been here illegally from coming back in legally or putting them at the very end of the line, unless they’d committed crimes while in the US. On this, I do not completely disagree with Trump.

“In a speech on July 11, Trump distinguished between those working legally and illegally in the United States, saying thousands of "legal" Mexicans - "incredible people" - have worked for him over the years.”

In other words, Trump is all for immigration, even temporary work visas and HB1 and other special visas as long as it is “legal”.

2- When Trump said, “I will be the greatest jobs president that God every created," he said in announcing his candidacy on June 16. "I will bring back our jobs from China, Mexico and other places. I will bring back jobs and our money.", he was talking about US jobs being lost to other countries, US manufacturers closing US plants and moving their operations to other countries because it costs them less and what he says is unfair trade competition by China, Mexico, Japan, etc., that puts US companies at an unfair advantage. On this again, I don’t completely disagree with Trump either.

So far with 1 & 2, I do not find this completely inconsistent in what Trump has said with what he does in his business practices, but with some exceptions. (*)

I do think he over simplifies the bigger economic issues at hand and doesn’t really understand the nexus between low cost consumer goods and at what price point US consumers are willing to pay for a pair of jeans or a tee shirt, a dress shirt or a tie – or maybe he does and that’s why he has his clothing line manufactured outside of the US.

And in his own business practices such as having his clothing line manufactured in China, Mexico and Bangladesh because it costs less and therefore makes it more competitive and presumably more profitable for him to do so, is IMO somewhat inconsistent with his claims of wanting to “bring back our jobs”. (*)

If he really wanted to find them, there are still many American, US based clothing manufactures, many not even unionized that would love to get a contract to manufacture Trump’s clothing line right here in the US. But it would however be a bit more expensive as a seamstresses in China, Mexico or Bangladesh (Vietnam and many other 3rd world countries) are willing to work for dollars or even pennies a day as opposed to a US equivalent dollars at mandated minimum wage per hour and with mandated benefits and those in the 3rd world are often willing to work under very unsafe and dangerous conditions – 12+ hours per day, 7 days a week with no overtime and no benefits.

FWIW, when I go to the Trump website and search for his branded “merchandise” it now rather than to Macy’s, it now points to Amazon.com. and to various 3rd party sellers and with many different price points.

http://www.amazon.com/Trump/b/ref=bt_sl_ap_b_web_2602748011?ie=UTF8&node=2602748011

Here is a Donald Trump branded silk tie sold for $ $34.99 and “Made in China”.

http://www.amazon.com/Donald-Trump-Mens-Octagon-Medallion/dp/B00EVO9IDQ/ref=cts_ap_1_fbt

Here is a very similar silk Brooks Brothers tie, one manufactured in the US (although it does say that the cloth was woven in England). It sells for $ 79.50.

http://www.brooksbrothers.com/Herringbone-Circle-Tie/MA01956,default,pd.html?dwvar_MA01956_Color=DKRD&contentpos=10&cgid=0210

A lot of people like to give lip service to the “I will only buy American, I will not buy goods made in China, etc. but when push comes to shove, most consumers look for the best bargain.

3- Legal foreign workers on a temporary work visa are at least coming into the country legally and hopefully paying US taxes and the employer paying employment taxes on those workers wages. However there is a very big problem with these foreign workers over staying their legal visas, not leaving once their temporary visas have expired and going into the underground economy and hence becoming illegals. Trump hasn’t to my knowledge really addressed this issue. Also a big truth about those on legal temporary work visas is that they live as cheaply as they can while working and living in the US and send a big chunk of their paychecks back home to their home country. Aside from the fruits of their cheap labor, they often are not contributing much if anything back into the US economy.

And…

4- “The temporary work visa program through which Trump's companies have sought the greatest numbers of workers, H-2B, brings in mostly workers from Mexico. Mexicans made up more than 80 percent of the 104,993 admissions to the United States on H-2B visas in 2013. The Trump companies have sought at least 850 H-2B visa workers.” “The H-2B program, which receives little government oversight, is used by companies in sectors ranging from hospitality to forestry to hire foreign workers for temporary jobs. Companies must prove that the jobs are seasonal - and that they tried and failed to hire Americans.”

I could make the case that the types of jobs Trump’s companies in the golf and hospitality industry are mostly low paying jobs; cooks, maids, wait staff, grounds keepers, etc. and that he has to, is “forced” to hire foreign workers, mostly from Mexico to fill those positions if he is not able to find enough US citizen workers to fill them. But it sounds and smells a bit like the “it’s the jobs that Americans refuse to do”.

As to the jobs at his Palm Beach, Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, I have a hard time imagining that all these jobs are “seasonal”. Isn’t Palm Beach pretty much “seasonal” all year round? Then again perhaps their “season” is during the winter when the “snow birds” come south.

And I could make the case that part-time seasonal US citizen workers are perhaps hard to find. At least up here in the “north” a lot of college students work as waiters and in other jobs in the resort industries, and in landscaping and construction and in retail, etc. during the summer while they are off from school. Around here, Hershey Park and Hershey’s resort, hotel and golf courses hire a lot of college kids during the summer months, their peak season, but have a hard time once college classes start back up in late August keeping those jobs filled while their “season” isn’t really over yet. I understand that some companies like Hershey and even in FL at Disney, they will increase their hourly rate or pay a bonus to those part time college students willing to stay on with a flexible schedule that works around their class schedule and for a minimum number of hours.

However, “The candidate's foreign talent hunt included applications for an assistant golf-course superintendent, an assistant hotel manager and a banquet manager.” Really? No US citizens could be found to fill those higher level jobs? Just how hard did they try to recruit US citizens for those jobs before bringing them in from a foreign county, most likely from Mexico on an H-2B visa?

Before anyone accuses me of being a “Trump Basher”, I think he has brought forward to the conversation and debate, some very important issues on immigration and trade imbalances that need to be talked about. But I also think that at the end of the day, Trump is all about Trump and his bottom line financially. As a business man, I don’t fault him for that but as someone who is preaching from a bully pulpit on how other US business should be conducting their business, and someone applying to the job of America’s CEO, I expect a more consistent and clearer position with more details on what policies he would oversee to be legislated enacted and enforced.

Trump owns companies that have sought to import at least 1,100 foreign workers on temporary visas since 2000,
1,100 over 15 yrs and 250 of them were models....

Saint Cruz on the other hand wants to issue millions of green cards, with benefits, AND increase H1b visas that everyone, including Saint Cruz knows, REPLACES American workers for cheaper labor.

Your post makes a lot of sense, and I agree with most of it. On the H-2B program, however, I disagree that it receives little government oversight. My impression is that most of the seasonal workers brought in under this program for Trump-style resort work are brokered by small headhunting firms who must apply for and then receive a strict quota of such workers. The wife of a former co-worker (both now retired) ran such a headhunter operation for 15 years. Her company specialized in recruiting young foreign workers, mostly from northern and eastern Europe for nanny and hotel/resort jobs. The nanny jobs were typically for one year (no more than two) and the resort jobs were usually for 4-6 months. Conversations with her over the years gave me the impression that there was very strict government oversight of the whole entry-visa process and, especially, the departure of the temporary workers when their visas expired. I recall that her company brought in about 100 workers per year, and tried to screen them very carefully. In all those years, there were a couple of incidents where a nanny was sent home early because of poor job performance, and another couple of occasions where a resort worker tried to stay in the US beyond the visa expiration date. The reputation of her company with regard to worker performance was very important, as much of her business was obtained through word-of-mouth referrals. Also, her ability to receive more slots from the government depended, in part, on how many of her recruits tried to “disappear” at departure time.

When you hire under H-B1 H-2A et al, then you are hiring legally, all this indicates is Trump wants to do business and employ legally, this is not a gotcha in any sense of the word, it is a plus.

I would not like to see Trump as POTUS the minus column for him is long, but I like what he is saying he is the best help in exposing the progressive liberal democrat/rino communist uni-party.

Indeed!

I will write a candidste in

On the H-2B program, however, I disagree that it receives little government oversight

FWIW, that wasn’t what I said but quoted from the article posted.

My impression is that most of the seasonal workers brought in under this program for Trump-style resort work are brokered by small headhunting firms who must apply for and then receive a strict quota of such workers…..Conversations with her over the years gave me the impression that there was very strict government oversight of the whole entry-visa process and, especially, the departure of the temporary workers when their visas expired.

That’s interesting and hopefully the case in most cases, but it would seem that not all “brokers” are as reputable as your former co-worker’s wife and her partner.

http://cis.org/north/mixed-messages-abusing-h-2a-and-h-2b-migrant-worker-programs