The Trump International Beach Resort in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, has sought permission to hire 37 temporary foreign workers to work as seasonal housekeepers and servers, according to records posted by the Department of Labor this week.
The resort, which is near Miami, licenses President Donald Trump’s name but is owned by the International Resorts Management Group.
Trump campaigned on a promise to defend US jobs and to tighten US immigration policies, and his administration has taken a number of actions designed to protect American jobs. Yet since he launched his presidential campaign in June 2015, businesses owned by Trump or bearing his name have sought to hire more than 570 foreign guest workers, including more than 280 for Mar-a-Lago, the luxurious resort he owns in Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump has claimed he would “be the greatest jobs president that God ever created” and has pledged to create 25 million US jobs over the next decade. In response to queries about why he would seek foreign workers to fill positions at his properties, Trump has said it is “very, very hard to get help” in Florida during the tourist season.
These new requests, like previous ones, involves the H-2 visa program, which permits US employers to hire guest workers from outside the country under temporary visas if no qualified US workers want the jobs.
No one from the Sunny Isles resort or the White House responded to requests for comment from BuzzFeed News.
The guest worker requests, which are subject to approval by the Department of Labor, would allow the club to employ 15 housekeepers, 16 waiters, and 6 assistant food and beverage servers via H-2 visas from December 2018 through early September 2019. The positions pay at least $11.00, $12.66, and $10.34 per hour, respectively, with the possibility of additional earnings from tips and overtime.
Since 2003, more than 100,000 foreigners have been brought into the country under the H-2 program each year.
In late 2016, a special envoy from the United Nations said the federal guest worker program puts workers at risk of economic exploitation, abuse, and trafficking. A 2015 BuzzFeed News investigation found that H-2 workers were often exploited, and sometimes raped, beaten, or sexually assaulted. BuzzFeed News also found that many Americans were denied jobs in favor of guest workers by companies that preferred foreign labor.
Trump companies have not been accused of mistreating H-2 workers.