Trump’s former maid asks for asylum to stay in US after admitting she’s undocumented
Trump’s former maid asks for asylum to stay in U.S. after admitting she’s undocumented
Updated 8:41 AM; Posted 8:02 AM
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Victorina Morales becomes tearful during an interview, as she recalls "humiliating" treatment at the hands of a supervisor while working at President Donald Trump's golf resort in Bedminster. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) (The Associated Press)
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By Kelly Heyboer | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
The undocumented immigrant who went public with her story about making President Donald Trump’s bed and doing his laundry while working at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster is asking an immigration court for asylum to let her stay in the country.
Victorina Morales, of Bound Brook, admits she used fake documents to get a cleaning job at Trump’s golf club after illegally crossing into the U.S. from her native Guatemala. She told her story to the New York Times earlier this month and has appeared on numerous national news programs, claiming there are several employees at Trump National who are immigrants living in the country illegally.
Morales was scheduled to attend a hearing at the U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services' asylum office in Lyndhurst Monday, where her attorney was expected to ask for a delay in her asylum case because, in part, of the national attention she has received.
“There is no doubt that Morales would face grave danger in Guatemala, where her visibility as the subject of a major news story would put her at even greater risk. We are confident in her asylum claim and will establish that she is entitled to protection under U.S. law,” Anibal Romero, her attorney, said in a statement.
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Here's how an undocumented immigrant got a job at Trump's N.J. golf club
President Donald Trump said during the campaign that his companies hires only legal workers. Not so, some workers say.
Romero has asked the state attorney general’s office to investigate Trump National because of what he said was abusive treatment of Morales and other undocumented immigrants who worked there and were threatened with deportation by supervisors if they did not do what they were told.
Immigrants living in the U.S. illegally can apply for asylum to stay in the country if they can establish they would be persecuted if they returned to their home nation because of their race, religion, nationality, political views or other reasons.
Morales, 45, says her family has been targeted in Guatemala in the past because they have family in the U.S.
“Victorina Morales faces tremendous danger in Guatemala, her home country, and we are confident that she will be granted asylum," her attorney said. “Several years ago, Morales’ father-in-law was targeted and killed in Guatemala by a group of men who sought to extort money because he had family members in the United States. Her son witnessed the murder, and her family has faced ongoing threats ever since."
Morales said she lived in rural Guatemala before she spent six weeks walking and taking buses to illegally cross the U.S.-Mexican border in 1999.
She obtained a false Social Security number and fake identification papers in Los Angeles, then flew to New Jersey to join her husband.
After working at several cleaning jobs, she applied for a higher-paying housekeeper post at Trump National Golf Club in 2013. She was hired, though she says she admitted to her interviewer that she had fake working papers.
“I told her I don’t have good papers. She told me to bring what I used at the hotel,” Morales told the New York Times.
At Trump National, Morales said she cleaned Trump’s family villa, made his bed and did the laundry for the President, the First Lady and their son. Trump personally tipped her several times because he said she was doing a good job, she said.
After Trump became president, Morales said she her supervisor told her she needed a new green card and Social Security number. She said a Trump National employee drove her to a house in Plainfield, where she paid $165 for a fake green card and a Social Security card with a made-up number.
Morales said she came forward with her story because she was tired of hearing Trump disparage undocumented immigrants.
The Trump Organization, which oversees Trump’s businesses, declined to comment on exactly how Morales was hired.
“We have tens of thousands of employees across our properties and have very strict hiring practices. If any employee submitted false documentation in an attempt to circumvent the law, they will be terminated immediately,” the Trump Organization said in a statement earlier this month.
Another former Trump National worker, Sandra Diaz, also told the New York Times she was an undocumented immigrant using fake documents when she worked for the New Jersey golf club from 2010 to 2013. She has since become a legal resident.
https://www.nj.com/news/2018/12/trum...ocumented.html
