July 21 (UPI) — As President Donald Trump promotes his “Made in America” week to encourage the purchase of American-made goods and increase American jobs, his Palm Beach resort is seeking visas to hire non-American workers and pay them less than a living wage.
According to paperwork filed with the United States Department of Labor, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club is seeking foreign worker visas to hire 15 housekeepers at $10.33 per hour, 20 cooks at $13.34 per hour and 35 servers at $11.88 per hour.
The visa applications were first reported by Buzzfeed.
Palm Beach, Fla., is known for its lavish beachside estates where millionaires and billionaires reside, so most service workers there reside outside the city, such as nearby West Palm Beach. But even in the working-class city with an unemployment rate of about 4 percent adjacent to the wealthy city that Trump calls his second home, the average cost of living requires one to earn at least $25 per hour after taxes, according to Numbeo.
Trump, who ran on a promise to increase the number of jobs for Americans and decrease immigration, has applied for foreign workers to fill service positions at Mar-a-Lago several times since he announced his presidential bid in 2015, including a request for 64 workers at his resort in February.
In July 2016, he told ABC News “it’s very, very hard to get employees” at his club.
“We interview. And we have a lot of people. We come with a lotta people. But it’s very, very hard to get people in Palm Beach during the Palm Beach season. It’s called the ‘Palm Beach social season.’ And what we do is we sometimes have to bring people in,” he said.
His son, Donald Trump, Jr., also requested foreign worker visas to work the farms of his Virginia winery in March.
This week, Trump used the “Made in America” campaign to promote American-made goods.
“Every day, we are fighting to bring back our jobs, to restore our industry, and to put America first,” he said Thursday.
