Trump Wins Visas To Hire 70 Foreign Workers For His Mar-a-Lago Resort

During President Donald Trump’s inaugural address, he said that under his leadership, the country would “follow two simple rules: buy American and hire American.” This was the culmination of a presidential campaign where Trump scapegoated immigrants for many of America’s economic woes. “They’re taking our jobs,” Trump said in 2015. “They’re taking our manufacturing jobs. They’re taking our money. They’re killing us.”

In April, Trump signed a Buy American, Hire American executive order saying, “It’s America first, you better believe it. It's time.” And he promised to “aggressively promote and use American-made goods and to ensure that American labor is hired to do the job.”

But in July, the Department of Homeland Security ignored the order and raised the cap on H-2B visas for foreign guest workers from 66,000 visas per year to 81,000.

Earlier in the month, Trump completely ignored his campaign promise to hire American by winning visas to hire 70 foreign housekeepers, waiters, and cooks to work at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. The managers of the club said there aren’t enough qualified Americans available to do the work, so they opted for foreign help.

According to CareerSource Palm Beach County, a nonprofit job placement agency, there are plenty of qualified Americans to do the job. “We currently have 5,136 qualified candidates in Palm Beach County for various hospitality positions listed in the Employ Florida state jobs database,” spokesman Tom Veenstra told the Palm Beach Post.