One night before President Trump‘s State of the Union address, CNN’s Chris Cuomo started his show with a simple premise in regards to illegal immigration: “The overwhelming majority of people who come illegally are looking for work, and they find it.” According to a report from The Washington Post this Monday, many of those illegal immigrants are finding work at Trump’s golf courses.
As Cuomo pointed out on his show this Monday, Trump spends a lot of time demonizing illegal immigrants, but you never hear him criticizing the people who hire them.
“Big money wins with this president,” Cuomo said. “He doesn’t attack the rich, the business men, but he knows they’re hiring, driving the demand for migrant labor.”
Cuomo went on to say that Trump knows that if he were to confront the reality of employers driving undocumented labor, it would “distract from the xenophobia and the anger that [Trump] depends on to sell his message.”
“His base won’t be as angry at the mostly white employers hiring cheap labor.” the CNN host continued. “And then third, this is the biggest reason … our president is part of the problem.”
Cuomo went on:
“You know how his supporters insist the president is not a politician? They are right, essentially. Our president is not a politician, he’s a business man. And in that role — up to this very minute — he has hired undocumented workers. Lots of them.”
As The Washington Post reported on Monday, five of Trump golf clubs fired at least 18 undocumented workers over the past two months in the wake of reports highlighting his clubs’ hiring practices.
This Wednesday, Cuomo interviewed immigration lawyer Anibal Romero who represents about two dozen of the fired workers.
“…all of my clients were not paid health benefits,” Romero said. “And according to them, other workers were paid health benefits, retirement plans. My question is, why weren’t the undocumented immigrants paid health benefits?”
According to Romero, “business records will show that [Trump’s golf courses] have hired numerous undocumented immigrants throughout the years.”
Watch the segment from this Monday’s Cuomo Prime Time below:
Featured image via screen grab
