E-Verify to be Used at All Trump Properties
By Dan Murphy
A dozen employees at the Trump National Golf Club Westchester were fired late last month after an internal review of their employee documents found them to be fraudulent. All of the employees, determined to be undocumented workers, were immediately fired without severance despite some having worked for the Trump Organization for 14 years.
Eric Trump, President Donald Trump’s son, who is acting CEO at many of the Trump golf courses, said in a statement: “We are making a broad effort to identify any employee who has given false and fraudulent documents to unlawfully gain employment. Where identified, any individual will be terminated immediately.”
He added that it is one of the reasons “my father is fighting so hard for immigration reform. The system is broken.” The review by the Trump Organization came after a New York Times story last December, which highlighted an undocumented housekeeper who worked for five years at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., and who cleaned the president’s room when he was in town. After that story, the employee featured in the Times story and several other undocumented workers at the New Jersey club were fired.
While the workers at the Briarcliff club who were let go were saddened about their termination, which came after the company conducted an audit of immigration documents and found that all of the employees who were terminated had filed fraudulent working papers, the firings were legal and according to U.S. labor laws. An attorney representing the New Jersey workers who were fired is asking authorities to investigate the practices at the Trump clubs because he believes that the president and his family had knowingly broke the law. Some undocumented workers, who had been employed at Trump National-Westchester since 2005, said that when initially hired, the Trump Organization did not closely review the papers submitted.
But once the audit of immigration paperwork began, the Trump Organization, by law cannot continue to employ an individual knowing that the individual is, or has become unauthorized for employment. That is why the employees in question were immediately fired. One way employers can confirm the eligibility of their employees is through E-Verify, a web-based system which the Trump Organization said it will now use at all of its properties.
“We are actively engaged in uniforming this process across our properties and will institute E-Verify at any property not currently utilizing this system,” said Eric Trump. “As a company we take this obligation very seriously and when faced with a situation in which an employee has presented false and fraudulent documentation, we will take appropriate action.”
Launched in 1996, the E-Verify system allows employers to check documentation submitted by job applicants with records at the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to see whether they are authorized to work. Thousands of employers have enrolled voluntarily in the E-Verify electronic system, and all federal contractors must use E-Verify. More than 20 states require some type of E-Verify for public contracts and state agencies, but in New York it is voluntary. Only the states of Arizona and Mississippi require all employers to E-Verify.
Last year, President Trump included in his proposed budget $23 million to be invested in expanding the E-Verify program to mandatory nationwide use, but it was not included by Congress in the spending plan. USA Today suggested that a “Grand Bargain” could be reached on immigration without any additional funding for the wall.
“A grand bargain of wall funding and legal status for ‘Dreamers’ is probably impossible. But E-Verify and Dreamer legal status is worth exploring,” wrote Robert Robb, a columnist at The Arizona Republic, whose column was reprinted for USA Today. “Some say the key to overcoming the budget impasse over border security is to expand the discussion over immigration. The political viability of that is doubtful. But if it is to occur, the mandatory use of E-Verify should come off the bench and be put into the game. “If any funding for a wall is too toxic for Democrats, perhaps mandatory use of E-Verify won’t be,” continued Robb. “The federal government has the capability, through a digital system called E-Verify, to tell employers whether a job applicant is legally entitled to work in this country.
“The system can’t be gamed with made-up names or Social Security numbers. Defeating it requires identity theft, using the name and Social Security number of a real person. Such identity theft is easily detected and, if vigorously prosecuted, would be largely deterred. “Requiring all employers to use E-Verify would do far more to reduce illegal immigration than anything done at the border. It would effectively lock illegal workers out of the formal economy, the main driver of illegal immigration.
“Mandatory use of E-Verify hasn’t been just a Republican idea,” concluded Robb. “When Arizona made it mandatory, it was signed by a Democratic governor, Janet Napolitano. Mandatory use of E-Verify and legal status for Dreamers would be a better deal and at least somewhat more politically feasible.”
Another supporter of E-Verify is Westchester resident and business owner Frank Spotorno. “I have always supported E-Verify as a way to make sure that legal citizens of our country are given first priority on construction jobs,” he said. “In my travels around New York City, I find very few contractors using E-Verify.” “Many businesses in America don’t want to use E-Verify because they claim they can’t find the workers to perform many jobs,” said Spotorno, founder of Bring Our Jobs Home. “But what I see are tax-paying union members waiting at home for a job.”
