Entitlements of Unmitigated Ingrates

Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, N.J.

"I never imagined, as an immigrant from the countryside in Guatemala, that I would see such important people close up."
"We are tired of the abuse, the insults, the way he [Donald Trump] talks about us when he knows that we are here helping him make money."
"We sweat it out to attend to his every need and have to put up with his humiliation."
"I told her [Bedminster supervisor] I don't have good papers. She told me to bring what I used at the hotel  where she was previously hired with false documentation]."
"I ask myself, is it possible that this senor thinks we have papers? He knows we don't speak English. Why wouldn't he figure it out?"
Victorina Morales, illegal from Guatemala, Bedminster, New Jersey employee

"We have tens of thousands of employees across our properties and have very strict hiring practices."
"If an employee submitted false documentation in an attempt to circumvent the law, they will be terminated immediately."
Amanda Miller, senior vice-president for marketing and corporate communications, The Trump Organization

"There are many people without papers."
"He [Trump] is extremely meticulous about everything. If he arrives suddenly, everyone runs around like crazy."
"You did a really great job [Trump told her, handing her a $100 bonus]."
 Sandra Diaz, 46, illegal from Costa Rica, now a legal U.S. resident

The New York Times must be feeling pretty triumphant that two women, illegally having entered the United States, obtaining false documentation, worked for one of President Donald Trump's golf estates. The women, Victorina Morales and Sandra Diaz, through their immigration lawyer, approached The Times, prepared to divulge startling evidence of wrong-doing on the part of the president, and to answer any questions put to them, evidently because they were fed up with his professed scorn for the presence of some 8 million illegal entrants working in the United States.

Sandra Diaz no longer works for the golf club, while Victorina Morales does. And she evidently understands that her revelations once in print, will cost her her employment at Bedminster Golf Club and possibly her expulsion from the States. She has no reason for personal animosity against Trump, nor does Diaz, both women stating that though he was a demanding employer, he is also a generous and kind employer, which will come as an unwelcome surprise to the many who detest that coarse, egotistical man, happier to believe he has no redeeming qualities as a human being.

Ms. Morales' husband has confirmed his wife would sometimes arrive home from her work at the club, ecstatic that Trump had paid her a compliment, or had given her a $50 or $100 tip in appreciation of her work. His wife was in possession of a false social security number and id card, though she was hired on the basis that this paperwork was authentic. In other words, she entered the United States illegally and she bought false identity papers to enable her to find employment there.

Both, under U.S. law -- and like immigration law reflective of most countries -- criminal offences. Ms. Diaz had similar documents, now replaced by genuine documents since her status has changed to one of legal residence. Reward for law-breaking. Both hard-working women who find it offensive that the president of the country they illegally entered and illegally worked in identifies all such entrants as illegal and unwanted. Preferring, understandably, that those wishing to immigrate do so legally.

They both worked as housekeepers at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, making up the president's bed when he is in residence, cleaning his house, washing his clothing, tending to his needs, as housekeepers are hired and expected to do to account for the wages they depend upon. The club employs between 40 and 80 people, seasonally dependent, and most basic service workers are foreign-born. Ms. Morales had work in Los Angeles initially on arrival in the U.S., then travelled to New Jersey to join her husband who had arrived there earlier.

She was informed by a friend that the golf club management was looking for housekeepers and she applied, happy that the pay would be higher than what she was earning at a hotel cleaning guest rooms. At the job interview she presented her false social security number and identification card. Ms. Morales' work for the president was viewed as "outstanding" and in recognition she was awarded a certificate from the White House Communication Agency inscribing her name on it as a keepsake. Yet another kind gesture of recognition by the president.

She had crossed into California after a six-week journey from rural Guatemala in 1999. She had two years of formal education in her home country. She was hired to work at the club in 2013. Both women had interesting stories of interaction with Donald Trump. Ms. Diaz spoke of a time in 2012 when Trump asked her to follow him to the clubhouse, then ran his fingers around frames on the wall and over table surfaces; no dust. He congratulated her, and then handed her a $100 bill.

Ms. Morales' story was somewhat different; a small woman she was washing the pro shop's large arched windows when Trump pulled up in his car. Seeing her inability to reach the top of the windows he said, "Excuse me", took the rag and wiped the upper area of the window. Then he asked her name and where she was from. "I said, 'I am from Guatemala'. He responded 'Guatemalans are hardworking people'." He reached into his pocket, handing her a $50 bill.

"I told myself, 'God bless him'. I thought, he's a good person." Yet she chose to 'reveal' to The New York Times how 'fed up' she is with Trump's references to the presence in his country of illegal migrants. "Enough is enough", she said to her lawyer. "[I]t's time to come out of the shadows and let people understand that we work hard in America and we are not criminals, we are good people who work hard." Pretty thin gruel, considering the circumstances.

"[M]y clients and others were repeatedly subjected to abuse, called racial epithets and threatened with deportation."
"Ironically, the threats often came from the same supervisor who had employed them despite knowing their undocumented status and even provided them with forged documents."
"We have documentary evidence, we have the testimony of workers, we have the fraudulent documents—all of this could be provided to federal authorities and/or state authorities."
"Both of my clients are willing to cooperate with federal and state authorities."
"This toxic environment was designed to intimidate these women, leaving them fearful for their safety and the safety of their families."
Anibal Romero, Immigration lawyer for Ms. Diaz and Ms. Morales

Cry me a river. Does this make them any less illegal in their deliberate contravention of American immigration law?  It is the immigration lawyer, the two aggrieved women who are lacking in character in this 'scandalous' revelation of 'illegal' hiring, certainly not the man for whom they worked who has the best interests of his country and the people within it in his personal purview and responsibility. Having extended to these women the proverbial milk of human kindness their payback is justification for holding them in the contempt they deserve. Even while they're of the opinion that what they deserve is admiration for revealing their hypocrisy.