Sen. Sanders: ‘Hypocrite’ Trump rants against undocumented immigrants, but hires them at his properties

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Friday slammed President Trump as a “hypocrite” for ranting every day about how undocumented immigrants are “bad” for the U.S., saying the president has no problem hiring them to work at Trump properties. 

{mosads}

“What a hypocrite!” Sanders tweeted. “@realDonaldTrump makes hateful and racist rants every day about how immigrants are ‘bad’ for the country, but he had no problem hiring undocumented immigrants to help him build the Trump Hotel in DC or Trump Tower in New York City.”

Sanders later added that Trump repeatedly tells Americans “how much he hates immigrants and how much he loves American workers” while saying that “last year, Trump chose to hire only one American worker even though thousands of Americans wanted to work at his Mar-a-Lago resort.”

What a hypocrite! @realDonaldTrump makes hateful and racist rants every day about how immigrants are “bad” for the country, but he had no problem hiring undocumented immigrants to help him build the Trump Hotel in DC or Trump Tower in New York City.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) June 22, 2018

Trump tells us every day how much he hates immigrants and how much he loves American workers. But last year, Trump chose to hire only one American worker even though thousands of Americans wanted to work at his Mar-a-Lago resort. The rest were low-wage temporary guest workers.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) June 22, 2018

Sanders appeared to be at least partly referencing a Vox report released earlier this year that revealed only one out of 144 jobs at three of Trump’s Florida and New York properties went to a U.S. worker between 2016 and 2017. The other 143 were given to foreign guest workers, according to the analysis. 

The analysis also showed that the Trump Organization relies heavily on the H-2B visa program, which allows seasonal, nonagricultural employers to hire foreign workers when they can’t find American ones. Vox notes the Trump administration temporarily expanded this program in 2017. 

Trump recently stopped his administration’s policy of separating families at the U.S.-Mexico border after facing severe pressure from Democratic and Republican lawmakers over the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. 

Despite Trump’s order to end the separations, it remains unclear how or when thousands of children who were separated will be reunited with their families.

Under the executive order, the government can only detain families together for “up to 20 days,” while adults facing prosecution await court dates.