In another demonstration of President-elect Donald Trumps blatant conflicts of interest, a Trump family vineyard filed a request this month for six temporary foreign worker visasvisas which Trumps administration will soon have the power to approve.
The U.S. Labor Department posted the request (pdf) that was submitted earlier this month online on Wednesday.
This is a powerful example of why Donald Trump needs to make a definitive break, not just with his operational interests but his ownership interests, by appointing an independent trustee to liquidate all that, Norm Eisen, former chief White House ethics lawyer for President Obama, told the Washington Post.
Its a classic conflict of interest, Eisen said.
And the conflict of interest isnt the only noteworthy aspect of the situation: Like many U.S. businesses in the Trump empire, the vineyard often employs temporary foreign workers under H2 visas. Specifically, H2-A visas apply to temporary agricultural workers, many of whom travel to the U.S. to work from South Americaincluding Mexico.
Trump ran an aggressively anti-immigrant campaign, leading chants of build a wall!referring to a promise to construct a wall on the U.S.-Mexico borderat his massive campaign rallies. Since launching his campaign by calling Mexicans rapists, the president-elect has continued to characterize immigrants as criminals and says he plans to enact mass deportations once he takes office.
Yet Trumps various businesses have been granted approval to hire at least 1,256 foreign guest workers over the last 15 years, according to a CNN analysis of Labor Department filings, reports CNN Money. Of those requests, the Post notes that 269 were filed after Trump started his presidential run.
Trump serves as president of Trump Winery in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the vineyard is run by Trumps son, Eric, according to the Post.
Trump continues to refuse to divest himself of his businesses, as Common Dreams has reported.
#1: misterwhite To: Deckard (#0)
Not true. Trump ran an aggressively anti-illegal-immigrant campaign. Trump is not proposing to eliminate the H2-A program, so there's no hypocrisy.
Under H2-A, farmers have to prove they cannot find American workers to fill the position and hiring a foreign worker would not hurt Americans in similar work. Most farmers don't want to fill out this paperwork and instead simply hire illegals.
misterwhite posted on 2016-12-27 10:11:17 Reply Private Reply
#2: Justified To: misterwhite, Deckard (#1)
This is a powerful example of why Donald Trump needs to make a definitive break, not just with his operational interests but his ownership interests, by appointing an independent trustee to liquidate all that, Norm Eisen, former chief White House ethics lawyer for President Obama, told the Washington Post.
Its a classic conflict of interest, Eisen said.
Thats just hilarious coming from the Obummer Administration. To me it looks like a vindictive child having a tantrum[which is Obama].
Justified posted on 2016-12-27 10:55:24 Reply Private Reply
#3: misterwhite To: Justified (#2)
They are merely required to disclose them.
misterwhite posted on 2016-12-27 10:59:46 Reply Private Reply