Trumpworld

Mar-A-Lago isn't the only Trump property that hired undocumented immigrants - those awful rapist and murderers Trump likes to talk about.

[Juan] Quintero, 42, was so trusted by the Trumps that he had not one but two jobs working for the family. He was a greenskeeper at the Trump National Golf Club Hudson Valley in Hopewell Junction, N.Y., where he would work eight-hour shifts on weekdays. Then he would put in five more hours each day as a contractor at the 171-acre hunting retreat called Leather Hill Preserve, which serves as a private weekend playground for President Trump’s sons and [their] property’s co-owners.

He also was an immigrant from Mexico who had crossed the border more than two decades ago and was working illegally in the United States.

[...]

In January, Quintero lost his [Trump jobs] after 18 years of employment — part of a purge of undocumented workers from Trump’s businesses amid revelations that the company relied on illegal labor for years, well into Trump’s presidency.

[...]

“All of the years you give them, and they just let you go,” Quintero said in a recent interview at his home in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. “They do not say, ‘Let’s do something, let’s try to help you.’ They simply said, ‘Your documents are not valid,’ and that is it.”

  WaPo

Something they've known for 18 years.

Quintero said he never directly told Eric Trump about his immigration status. But he said he remained employed by the hunting lodge for more than a year after not providing the owners with a Social Security number when they sought to issue him a debit card.

[...]

Eric Trump, who separately owns Leather Hill Preserve with his brother and several other partners, declined to comment. Trump Jr. did not respond to requests for comment. It is unclear whether they knew about Quintero’s immigration status.

But what is known is that they had direct communication with Quintero.

One morning last May, Eric Trump sent a text message to the caretaker of the shooting range he and his brother own in Upstate New York. The weather was getting warmer, and it was time to plant crops to attract deer that the Trumps and their friends could hunt.

“Juan — how are the fields coming along,” Eric Trump wrote to Juan Quintero. “They need to be planted in the next week or so in order to make the season. Hope you are great.”

“I’m working in it,” Quintero replied in his limited English.

[...]

In recent months, The Washington Post has reported that the Trump Organization employed immigrant workers without legal status at five golf courses in New York and New Jersey. One of the president’s prized properties, a club in Bedminster, N.J., was built and maintained by dozens of laborers from Costa Rica and other Latin American countries who worked there for more than 16 years.

[...]

[Quintero's] work at the shooting range deepens questions about what measures the Trump family and its businesses have taken to prevent the hiring of workers the president casts as invaders and criminals.

Obviously none.

Quintero said he met with Eric Trump to discuss his job duties and shared copies of text messages sent from a number matching that of Trump’s personal cellphone — saved in his contacts under the name “Erik Boss.”

The exchanges show that Eric Trump closely tracked Quintero’s work.

[...]

After the New York Times published a report in December about two immigrant housekeepers who worked at the Bedminster club without proper documentation, the company began an audit of its workforce and fired workers at various properties.

[...]

“This situation is not unique to Trump Organization — it is one that all companies face,” [Eric] said. “It demonstrates that our immigration system is severely broken and needs to be fixed immediately.”

That's rich. It's not their fault for taking advantage of a broken system. It's like Trump said during the campaign, not paying taxes just means he's smart, and to Cohen about faking a medical condition to get out of serving in the military: "You think I'm stupid? I'm not going to Viet Nam."

Like other Trump workers who have lost their jobs, Quintero said he presented a phony green card when he was hired at the golf course by its previous owners. He said he used the same false papers to continue working there after Trump acquired the property in 2009. When Quintero got the offer in 2016 to tend to the brothers’ hunting retreat, he said, no one asked about his legal status.

[...]

For Quintero, who was usually there alone during the week, the shooting range was a peaceful, somewhat solitary place — but a welcome source of extra income. He liked the responsibility of working for the president’s family and learning new skills. He said he would watch online videos about growing crops and attracting deer.

“It was the first time I was responsible for an estate or property like this,” Quintero said. “It felt like a new challenge in life.”

[...]

When he was hired, Quintero was required to sign a contract stating that he “will not disclose to anyone, and always keep secret” any details about the property and its owners, according to a copy he showed The Post.

[...]

Quintero said that his job didn’t change when Trump was elected president, but that the security did. At one point in early 2017, he said, Ferraro called him to the property.

[...]

“I did not expect to find the Secret Service or Eric when I arrived.

[...]

When he sat down, he recalled that Eric Trump asked him if he needed anything.

“The thought hit me that yes, I need my papers,” Quintero recalled. “Right now, that’s the only thing I need.”

But Quintero said his immigration status was not discussed during that 15- to 20-minute encounter.

However, the subject came up several months later. In mid-2017, Quintero said, Ferraro sent him a message asking for his Social Security number because he wanted to get him a debit card to buy supplies for the property.

[...]

Panicked, he said he turned to the closest neighbor to Leather Hill, a man named Thomas Sartoris, who was friendly with Ferraro and the Trumps.

“He always helped me whenever I had a problem,” Quintero said.

Quintero said Sartoris urged him to be honest.

“Tell him you don’t have a Social. Even better, tell him to help fix your papers,” Quintero recalled Sartoris saying. “You work for the son of the president, you work for the president. How many years have you worked for them? Let them help you.”

Really? Sartoris didn't know them very well, then, did he?

A few weeks later, Quintero found a debit card left for him in a garage on the property where he collected his paychecks and left his receipts. The card, a photo of which was viewed by The Post, was under the name Jason Decker, Leather Hill Preserve, and issued by TD Bank, where Ferraro works as a financial adviser.

[...]

Jason Decker is one of the owners of the hunting property, according to another owner, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the group’s private dealings.

Quintero said he had never heard of Decker. The Post could not reach Decker to confirm his connection to Leather Hill.

[...]

Quintero said that Sartoris told him that he had passed along Quintero’s concerns about having a fake Social Security number to Ferraro.

Sartoris told The Post that he knew Quintero but declined to comment further.

I bet he did.

Jason Decker is one of the owners of the hunting property, according to another owner, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the group’s private dealings.

Quintero said he had never heard of Decker. The Post could not reach Decker to confirm his connection to Leather Hill.

[...]

Having lost both jobs, Quintero now fears being deported and separated from his wife and four U.S.-born sons.

I think that's a pretty safe bet.

[His attorney, Anibal Romero, who represents dozens of immigrants fired from Trump properties] said his clients are cooperating with authorities and should be shielded from deportation. “They are material witnesses to federal and state crimes, and any attempt to remove them from the United States should be considered obstruction of justice,” he said.

I like this part:

The [Trump brothers' hunting] property abuts the crumbling campus of a former state psychiatric hospital.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.