President Donald Trump, whose policies have consistently (and inaccurately) cast immigrants as a group that “takes jobs and benefits away from hardworking Americans” (his most recent tweet, using this exact phrasing, went out a scant 17 hours ago), has filed a request with the Department of Labor asking permission to hire 61 foreign workers as temporary cooks and front-of-house servers at his for-profit, Palm Beach, Florida Mar-a-Lago resort.
The request for 21 cooks and 40 front-of-house employees, for an employment window of October 2018 to May 2019, is under the controversial H-2 visa for temporary workers, which allows employers to fill non-agricultural roles for which there “are not enough U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available to do the temporary work.” (Framed another way, application for said visa suggests that the Trump Organization, which runs Mar-a-Lago and other Trump properties, believes that there are no local American citizens “able, willing, and qualified” for the seasonal cook and server jobs.)
According to Department of Labor filings, servers in that temporary role would be paid $12.68 per hour, with cooks receiving $13.31 per hour. Annual membership to Mar-a-Lago costs $14,000 per year, not counting a $200,000 initiation fee.
via Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Wants to Hire Foreign Workers as Servers and Cooks – Eater
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