CNN recently interviewed immigration attorney Anibal Romero for their investigation into undocumented immigrants at the Trump Organization. Watch Anibal Romero discuss immigration law on CNN and read the transcript below:
CNN: Sandra Diaz and Victorina Morales are the first to speak out publicly about their experience working at a Donald Trump golf resort as undocumented women. As first reported by the New York Times Thursday, both were hired as housekeepers at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster New Jersey. Morales said she was hired in 2013, Diaz says she worked there from 2010 through 2013 and has since become a legal permanent resident of the US. Both claim managers employed by the Trump organization knowingly hired them as undocumented workers. Diaz tells me her decision to go public was made in part because of what she calls a high level of hypocrisy. The president launches such hardline immigration rhetoric says Diaz, yet his organization is doing the complete opposite. Morales, Diaz’s former colleague, says she has additional reasons for speaking out. The undocumented Guatemalan alleges she was subjected to demeaning verbal assaults by her superior. After Trump became president, the housekeeping manager became more aggressive towards the employees, recalls Morales. She describes being threatened with deportation repeatedly. There are also allegations of illegal hiring practices. Diaz claims managers at the property went as far as to arrange for fraudulent documents to keep them employed. Morales tells me she was taken to an offsite location after being hired, away from the club. She says it was there that she was provided with a bogus social security card and identification. The woman’s attorney, Anibal Romero, says they are prepared to provide proof to authorities if an investigation into the Trump Organization’s hiring practices is launched.
Anibal Romero: Absolutely. 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. Both of my clients are willing to cooperate with federal and state authorities.
CNN: In responds to the claims, Trump Organization spokeswoman, Amanda Miller said in a statement, “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. Morales and Diaz tell CNN they do not believe Donald Trump was actually aware of the alleged illegal hiring practices. They even have fond memories of their early years working at the Trump property. “I was very proud to say that I work there” says Diaz. And we spoke to Morales, asked her if she is still technically employed by the Trump Organization. She said that she hasn’t heard otherwise on it, which leads her to believe that she technically is still in the books. Now, as for the attorney who we just heard from, he said that he is now considering potentially following up with a civil lawsuit against the Trump Administration. This case, it would be for employment discrimination, certainly going to be something to watch, especially if he says what he says he would do, which is produce evidence that the Trump organization provided this kind of falsified documents, which again is still an allegation.
Immigration Attorney Anibal Romero and The Romero Firm can help you and your family navigate through the complex immigration process, guiding your path toward the final goal of living in the United States lawfully. Schedule a consultation with Anibal Romero or a member of his legal team today:
CBS recently interviewed immigration attorney Anibal Romero for their investigation into undocumented immigrants at the Trump Organization. Watch Anibal Romero discuss immigration law on CBS and read the transcript below:
CBS: Two women came forward today to say they were employed at a golf resort owned by the Trump organization, even though they were living in this country illegally. Adrian adias spoke with them.
CBS: Victorina Morales, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, has worked at the Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey for five years. Even cleaning the president’s residence. So you would make the beds, you would clean the bathrooms, you would dust, you would vacuum for the residents. She claims her bosses knew she wasn’t authorized to live in the U.S. but hired her anyway. So he said it doesn’t matter. We need someone whether or not they have documents. She says Jorge Via Fuerte, identified as a club facilities manager in this photo with Mr. Trump, later gave her money to get a fake green card and social security card. We tried to call Via Fuerte but were unable to reach him. Sandra Diaz, said she also worked at the club while she was undocumented. Their attorney, Anibal Romero, claims at least a dozen undocumented immigrants are on the club’s payroll.
Donald Trump: Republicans believe America should be a sanctuary for law abiding citizens, not criminal aliens.
CBS: Which if true, conflicts with the president’s position on illegal immigration. The women’s lawyer, provided us with Morales’s 2017 W-2, which lists her employer as Lamington Farm Club, a corporate name for Mr.Trump’s golf course. The address listed is Trump tower in New York. How do you know that those fraudulent documents were procured with the assistance or awareness of the club?
Anibal Romero: And that is why we, my clients are willing to cooperate with federal authorities and with state authorities so they can provide details.
CBS: In a statement, the Trump organization said, “we have tens of thousands of employees across our properties and have very strict hiring practices. If an employee submitted false documentation in an attempt to circumvent the law, they will be terminated immediately.” Morales expects that she and her colleagues will lose their jobs over this, but the women say they are willing to pay that price to come forward. Jeff, we’ve reached out to the White House, but haven’t heard back.
Immigration Attorney Anibal Romero and The Romero Firm can help you and your family navigate through the complex immigration process, guiding your path toward the final goal of living in the United States lawfully. The Romero Firm can help you in various areas of the immigration process, including Citizenship, Green Cards, Removal or Deportation, Work Permits, Civil Rights and Discrimination, Family Court, Asylum, and Family Petitions. Immigration attorney Anibal Romero and his team are dedicated to helping clients with immigration legal issues in New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Texas, and California. Schedule a consultation with Anibal Romero or a member of his legal team today:
CNN recently interviewed immigration attorney Anibal Romero for their investigation into undocumented immigrants at the Trump Organization. Watch Anibal Romero discuss immigration law on CNN and read the transcript below:
CNN: Moralez back in Washington today. This evening, she’s attending her former bosses, state of the Union, Democratic Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman invited her. So with me now, Victorina Morales’s attorney, Anibal Romero, he is also representing another undocumented worker fired from the Trump National Golf Club. So Anibal, welcome to you.
Anibal Romero: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
CNN: So you’ll be going with her tonight to the house to hear the speech. Can you just begin with what has Victoriana alleged, how she was treated?
Anibal Romero: Sure.
CNN: Any specifics?
Anibal Romero: So she was there for about five years and what she is saying is that her supervisor physically assaulted her, threatened her constantly with deportation. She complained to the management at the highest level. The general manager of the golf club, nothing was done and something that’s very important, apparently the picture of her green card was taken inside of the club and then one of the drivers drove her to a nearby town to pick up these fake documents, documents that, we have handed over to state authorities and this is the environment until she said enough is enough.
CNN: What you’re alleging, that second piece of that, that would be a federal crime if true. And I want to tell you what obviously the Trump organization is saying, but does she have proof? I mean, what you’re alleging is that the Trump organization knew she had no papers and that they helped fake them for her?
Anibal Romero: Yes. So we have met with state investigators. I have sat down with the FBI. She is willing to continue to cooperate with authorities.
CNN: Does she have proof?
Anibal Romero: She has proof, she has the documents, she has her testimony. And this is what’s important here, Victorina Morales is not the only person who says that this happened. We have Sandra Diaz, she also said that this was part of the environment there, that workers came in, documents were provided by people from inside. And at this point, I am now representing 25 workers in four different cities in the United States. And what these workers are telling me is that during the season, the golf season and the northeast apparently ends. I’m not a golfer, sorry, but it ends in November. And what they were telling me is that each club, half of the staff at each club was undocumented.
CNN: So this is what the club is denying those allegations, they say the former employees provided their own false paperwork and a statement to CNN Trump Organization when institute quote eVerify and all applicable properties and we’ll continue to take swift and appropriate action where necessary. Still you say so she has proof, not only in her false papers but the process of how she obtained her false papers.
Anibal Romero: And she has explained to authorities how this occurred. She will continue to cooperate and look with regards to that statement, I want to say one thing. If this was one or two employees in a major corporation, well maybe you would think, okay maybe a couple of them were able to get false documents, but we are talking about a golf club with 100 employees, no more and apparently half of them were undocumented. Each club, now we see that there are five clubs. So now we see a pattern and practice here, and that is why we are calling for a federal complete and thorough investigation of federal authorities. This is a criminal conspiracy.
Immigration Attorney Anibal Romero and The Romero Firm can help you and your family navigate through the complex immigration process, guiding your path toward the final goal of living in the United States lawfully. The Romero Firm can help you in various areas of the immigration process, including Citizenship, Green Cards, Removal or Deportation, Work Permits, Civil Rights and Discrimination, Family Court, Asylum, and Family Petitions. Immigration attorney Anibal Romero and his team are dedicated to helping clients with immigration legal issues in New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Texas, and California. Schedule a consultation with Anibal Romero or a member of his legal team today:
CNN recently interviewed immigration attorney Anibal Romero for their investigation into undocumented immigrants at the Trump Organization. Watch Anibal Romero discuss immigration law on CNN and read the transcript below:
CNN: So the president was ranting big time but about illegal immigration last night and we expected that, but while he was ranting about the brown menace and how you have to be careful about the migrants coming up, I call it the brown menace. That’s what I think he’s building with this farcical crisis. Two people were watching him in the gallery. He may have recognize them because they used to work for him and they’re not in this country legally. The man who represents them, we brought them here once before the story needs updating. It is expanded in shocking ways.
Last night, the president was pushing his immigration agenda up big time and he made a point of drawing on social divides. Listen to this because it’s relevant. “Wealthy politicians and donors push for open borders while living their lives behind walls and gates and guards. Meanwhile, working class Americans are left to pay the price for mass illegal immigration.”
Now. Obviously the president is the best protected person in the country and he’s certainly very wealthy. That’s all fine. That’s not the hypocrisy. The hypocrisy comes in here. He’s part of the problem when it comes to immigration as he sees it because he hires illegal workers not once four years, not one place. Many at least the golf clubs, at least five of them have hired undocumented workers. Now, many of them are being purged from his properties because of the reports that have surfaced and Trump officials have had a hand in their hiring. That’s a key component. How do I know: Anibal Romero. And I’ve been watching the reporting and reading it. He represents over two dozen of the undocumented workers who are recently pushed out. You saw him here a few months ago on primetime. He’s back now.
They come to you and say, look, I’m undocumented. All right, but they knew that they hired me. They hired a lot of us. They helped me get papers. They pointed me in the right direction. When I got uncomfortable, I wanted to do something else. They said you leave, you lose. Is that all true?
Anibal Romero: That is what they’re saying. When Victoria Morales spoke to the New York Times back in December, I started receiving anonymous calls from people who claim to work for the Trump Organization in different cities in the United States. I am now up to 25 people. I have spoken to 30, and what they are telling me is that the group is much larger. The golf season ends in November and many of them left for the year. Probably they won’t be hired because many of them and my clients are saying that at least half of the staff at each golf club was undocumented. That’s the situation right now.
CNN: So let’s say they’re completely off base. All right. Have you been able to vet at least those 25 to see if they are in fact undocumented? All that’d be weird thing lie about. And that they do have some form of proof that they worked at a Trump owned or controlled business.
Anibal Romero: Yes. I have seen pay stubs for all 25 clients. And what’s interesting is all of my clients were not paid health benefits and according to them, other workers were paid health benefits, retirement plans. And my question is, why weren’t the undocumented immigrants paid health benefits? Because you’re not entitled. So the only explanation is that they knew.
CNN: So, you’re using it as not, hey, give them health care. That’s a different argument today is that you’re saying it’s proof that they were aware. And so then they start to find out the report starts to come out. What has happened to the workers that you represent?
Anibal Romero: During the government shutdown the Trump organization, according to what my clients were saying, conducting an audit of businesses and the permanent employees. Remember the temporary ones all left, the permanent employees were fired. They were brought into an office and they were asked, are you legal? In some cases they were just informally asked on the golf club, are you legal? And said, well, you have to leave. And what’s interesting is when the Bedminster golf club story came out, one of my clients who works in Hudson Valley, apparently his managers said to him, don’t worry about it. This is limited to the Bedminster. No one’s going to talk about this. Well now this happened in five different golf clubs. We don’t know of others, but we are talking about a large number of people who lost their job. And, that’s why we’ve been asking for a complete and thorough investigation. Review of business records will show that they have hired numerous undocumented immigrants throughout the years.
CNN: We’re just talking golf clubs, right? Obviously there are a lot of buildings with Trump’s name on them, their hotels, et cetera. Some he has control of many, he does not, but you haven’t even looked there yet. It’s just the golf clubs because that’s the community that knows him. And also, let’s be careful about the concern. This ain’t new. You know what I mean? This is what happens all over the country and all kinds of industries. Certainly the service industry, which is where the golf clubs fall under. So that’s not your beef, that people are hiring undocumented workers. That’s part of the economic reality in this country. It’s that the president is demonizing these people. He’s telling people, beware. The brown menace is, I call him. He doesn’t call him that. That’s my characterization of what he’s saying and he’s hiring them at the same time. Is there any way he could not know in your opinion?
Anibal Romero: Look, I don’t know if he personally knew, but what I do know from what my clients are telling me is that supervisors, new managers, new general managers knew, and here’s the difference. It isn’t illegal to work in the United States and we know they’re working their 11 million people here. Many of them have jobs. I would say most of them have jobs.
CNN: They believe eight of 11 million undocumented workers are in the workforce.
Anibal Romero: Right, but what was happening at these golf clubs is that the managers, some of them supervisors were physically assaulting certain clients. I have one client who says he was struck with a metal object. He filed a police report. We have that. I have victory in morale is who complained of years of threats of deportation. I mean, and what she is saying is this train’s dramatically when he became president and the supervisors would listen to him on TV, talk about immigrants.
CNN: Now they have a new problem because the, the smart thing to do, you know, forgive the cynicism would be to deport these people and get them out of here. But it’s complicated now. They could have done that before all of this. But now that there are some early investigations of some of these matters. Yes. So what happens if you deport them?
Anibal Romero: First of all, at this point they are all material witnesses of a major federal crime. A multistate conspiracy and any attempt to remove them from the United States is obstruction of justice. And that’s why we travel to Washington. We spoke to members of the Senate members. We were there last night, but we also traveled last week to Washington. I believe that members of the house are circulating a letter, I believe Senator Menendez from New Jersey is also is asking for protection for these workers.
CNN: Is there any official investigation yet?
Anibal Romero: I’m not going to discuss that.
Immigration Attorney Anibal Romero and The Romero Firm can help you and your family navigate through the complex immigration process, guiding your path toward the final goal of living in the United States lawfully. Schedule a consultation with Anibal Romero or a member of his legal team today:
MSNBC recently interviewed immigration attorney Anibal Romero for their investigation into undocumented immigrants at the Trump Organization. Watch Anibal Romero discuss immigration law on MSNBC and read the transcript below:
MSNBC: I’m joined now by Anibal Romero, an immigration attorney who represents 25 undocumented workers who served at Trump properties. This is so important. It’s obviously super hypocritical. Like in the Hollywood movie, your character wouldn’t be believable because your job is a little too easy politically. So, walk us through what this means. Uh, why should everyone believe these workers? Are they truthful? Um, and where do you go from here?
Anibal Romero: I now represent 25 workers who work at four different golf clubs. What they are telling me is that they were hired as undocumented immigrants, some of them management help them obtain these fraudulent documents.
I have a gentleman I represent. He was told to go find better fake looking documents because the original ones that he provided weren’t good looking enough.
MSNBC: Is there any written evidence from that at the time?
Anibal Romero: We have been in contact with the FBI. We’ve been in contact with the New Jersey Attorney General’s office and in New York state authorities we’ve actually sat down with New Jersey Attorney General. We submitted documents, we have pay stubs. And what the workers are telling me is that I represent 25, but what they’re saying is that there were hundreds of undocumented immigrants working for the Trump organization. This is a federal crime.
MSNBC: Right? And you look, you’re an advocate, so you represent these folks. But the wider reporting from, from people who don’t have a side in this, does seem to reinforce your, your storyline reading again from this white washed posts stories. And they’ve, they’ve really been all over this police report showing the club’s head of security was told back in 2011 about an employee is suspected of using false identification papers. So how high does this go? I, you know, is this something that was just local because there’s a lot of use of undocumented labor, uh, in this country as we all know. Sure. Or did it go higher?
Anibal Romero: Right. So what my clients are saying is that supervisors, new managers knew that general manager knew this. That is why we’ve been calling for a complete and thorough federal investigation. We are certain if the Department of Homeland Security, where to conduct an investigation, they will see, they will review business records and they will find that there were hundreds of undocumented workers. I’ve seen paystubs as far back as 2001 some of these people have been working there 16, 17 years. In one case, Victoria Morales, who was the first woman to come out, she said that management helped her obtain these fake documents.
MSNBC: So as you know, in the debates over the war on drugs, which is complicated, one of the things that has gotten more understanding is if there’s an overwhelming demand inside the United States than that demand will be met. Right. And it’s kind of a market thing. Not that you encouraged people to break the law. He’s part of your argument basically in this case, exposing that as with the war on drugs, as long as the American economy has this demand, then it doesn’t make sense to only blame the people who are coming in to serve the dual.
Anibal Romero: Absolutely. Look, there are 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. Most of them are good people. They’re decent people. They’ve been paying taxes, they have clean criminal records. And that’s why I think it’s important for Congress to really sit down and look for a solution here. We’re, we’re dividing the country over an issue that really is laughable. They’re here, they’re working, they’re good people and the criminals, yeah, let’s get rid of them. Right. There are only a few right.
MSNBC: We wanted to talk to you cause you’re putting your finger on something important, which is if the only infraction is working for the Trump org or working for an American company that’s in cahoots with you, that seems a little different than other types of crime that that may genuinely scare Americans. Anibal Romero, thanks for telling us.
Immigration Attorney Anibal Romero and The Romero Firm can help you and your family navigate through the complex immigration process, guiding your path toward the final goal of living in the United States lawfully. The Romero Firm can help you in various areas of the immigration process, including Citizenship, Green Cards, Removal or Deportation, Work Permits, Civil Rights and Discrimination, Family Court, Asylum, and Family Petitions. Immigration attorney Anibal Romero and his team are dedicated to helping clients with immigration legal issues in New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Texas, and California. Schedule a consultation with Anibal Romero or a member of his legal team today:
