Trump golf clubs now use E-Verify

FREEHOLD, N.J. — The two Mexican line cooks noticed nothing remarkable about the opening of the 2019 season at President Donald Trump’s golf club in Colts Neck, N.J.

Juan Espinoza and Abelardo Montes filled out the same forms and presented the same fake identification cards to their superiors as they had done for the past seven years, they said.

They showed up to cook, spent one week on the job, and then were summoned to a manager’s office early one Saturday morning in April. Their documents were invalid, they were told. They could punch out and leave the premises.

“They said a new rule had started called E-Verify,” Montes said. “That was the reason they fired us.”

The firings show that Trump’s company has followed through on its promise this year to start using the government’s online system for checking a new hire’s eligibility to work in the United States — a pledge it made in response to revelations that the company relied on undocumented labor.

The dismissals also show that the Trump Organization’s adoption of Everify has led to further shedding of workers, after the company had already purged about 20 undocumented workers this year. All 12 of Trump’s U.S. golf courses are now enrolled in the program, according to the government’s online database of E-Verify users; in December, only three were enrolled.

Espinoza and Montes said another 15 undocumented groundskeepers were let go this year at Trump National Golf Club Colts Neck. The Washington Post was not able to independently verify the additional firings at Colts Neck.

The Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment for this article. Trump’s son Eric, who is running his father’s company day-today, has said the terminations are a tragic consequence of the workers’ use of false documents to get a job and the country’s broken immigration system.