Only three months after the Trump Winery took steps to hire foreign workers for seasonal jobs, the company owned by President Donald Trump's son Eric is again defying the president's "hire American" mantra.
Trump Winery is trying to use the federal government's H-2 visa program to hire 29 seasonal farm workers from outside the United States, according to the Associated Press. This comes on the heels of them requesting to hire six farm workers in December and 23 farm workers in February.
A local attorney who has worked with local vineyards that use the H-2A program told the AP: "It’s difficult to find people. People these days say there are no workers that will perform seasonal work like agriculture jobs, landscaping, entry level, low skill ... I think that’s an overstatement. I don’t think there are no people do to it, there’s just a deficiency of people to do it."
In order for an agricultural employer to try to hire H-2A workers, it must demonstrate to the Department of Labor that there are not enough qualified American workers who are willing and available to do the work. They also must have demonstrated reasonable efforts to hire American workers. Trump Winery, claims that they need workers to plant and cultivate vines, install grow tubes and prune grape vines, as well as perform general tasks related to operating the winery.
At Trump's Mar-a-Lago golf club, there's a similar demand for foreign workers. For the pricey club, the Trump organization claims that there aren't enough American workers to "wait on his guests, cook their food and clean their rooms during the winter high season in Florida," Quartz reported in February.
In December, Trump said that there were "two rules"for his administration: "Buy American and hire American."
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