Undocumented worker fired by Trump Organization will be guest at State of the Union
New Jersey Democratic Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman invited an undocumented immigrant who was fired from the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, to be her guest at the State of the Union on Feb. 5. Victorina Morales was fired in December after giving an interview with The New York Times disclosing her legal status.
Watson Coleman said in her statement announcing Morales as a guest that while President Trump allowed for a government shutdown to last over a month in an effort to obtain funding for a border wall, his company "has relied extensively on the hard work of undocumented immigrants like my constituent Victorina to keep his resorts clean and his putting greens trimmed."
"Donald Trump wants to build silly walls to stop the same immigrants that he's made a career and a fortune from exploiting," Watson Coleman said. She urged Congress to negotiate on an immigration reform plan.
While the government shut down for 35 days when Mr. Trump refused to approve a budget that did not include funding for the border wall, the government has been reopened through Feb. 15 to allow for negotiations on border security.
"We need to implement a true bipartisan immigration reform plan — one that both secures our border and establishes a pathway to citizenship for people like Victorina, who are positively contributing to our communities," Watson Coleman said.
During her time at the Trump National Golf Club, Morales made Mr. Trump's bed and cleaned his toilets, and was given a certificate from the White House Communications Agency praising her performance during the president's visits, according to the Times.
"We are tired of the abuse, the insults, the way he talks about us when he knows that we are here helping him make money," she told the Times. "We sweat it out to attend to his every need and have to put up with his humiliation."
The Washington Post reported Saturday that the Trump National Golf Club had fired its undocumented employees. The Trump Organization said Wednesday that it will use the E-Verify electronic system at all of its properties to check employees' documentation, in response to claims that some of its workers were in the U.S. illegally, according to the Associated Press.