You've probably heard more about Donald Trump's weekend golf trips to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida than you would like. It's not my job to be unpleasant here at TRH but, since I can't stand hypocrisy in any form, Trump has left me with no choice but to bring up the subject. Mar-a-Lago, as of right now, is the arena on which The Donald's hypocrisy on his signature issue--immigration--is on full display.
As is described in greater detail here, Trump has received approval from the Labor Department--the one that, as President, he is in charge of overseeing--to employ 70 foreign workers through a visa program, H2B, that allows American employers to hire foreign workers for seasonal resort jobs, in addition to 24 similar workers at other Trump resorts. Trump was able to do this in part because, despite the availability of more than sufficient American-based workers, he made minimal compliance with the programs requirement that the positions in question be advertised in such a way as to make those workers aware of them.
Full disclosure requires me to state that my wife and I, in our law practice, bring in foreign workers through a similar program, H1B, for highly-skilled workers, and through petitions for permanent residency. The differences, in ascending order: (1) American-based workers are in fact in short supply for the positions in question; (2) on our advice, our clients comply fully with the requirement, in the case of permanent residency petitions, to advertise the positions in question; and (3) neither of us is the President of the United States, and therefore in a position to manipulate who gets selected for available visas, or to increase the number of visas that are available, as Trump has done with regard to the program through which his resorts will be staffed.
But let's the the conflict-of-interest question behind us at this point. Do you remember that Trump, during his campaign, made a big point about making sure that chronically unemployed or underemployed workers were about to "work their asses" off once he got elected? Do you remember the big show he made during the transition period of saving Carrier jobs (most of which eventually went overseas anyway)? Well, here was an opportunity to hire some of his most devoted supporters. And he gave them the employment equivalent of the finger.
Ah, but for club members, there's a very different standard, even if they're an immigrant. One of them can be an alleged rapist--and Mr. Conflict-of-Interest will step in an save him from deportation. A far different fate than he would have endured had he been a 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy, but no Mar-a-Lago membership to save her.
G-d only knows (literally) how much more of this hypocrisy we have to endure before we are set free from its curse.
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