Trump Winery requests permission to import more foreign migrant workers

(Image credit: Dylan Rives/Getty Images for SOBEWFF)

published 17 February 2017

On Thursday, as people throughout the U.S. were skipping school and work to highlight President Trump's anti-immigration policies in a "Day Without Immigrants" protest, Trump Vineyard Estates sought permission from the Labor Department to bring 23 more foreign workers to Virginia to help plant and harvest grapes. The vineyard, also known as Trump Winery, is requesting the foreign laborers using H-2 visas, or temporary permission to work in the U.S. in jobs qualified Americans can't or won't do, BuzzFeed News reports. The H-2 program has brought to the U.S. more than 100,000 foreign workers since 2003, and Trump businesses have sought to hire at least 286 guest workers since he launched his presidential campaign in mid-2015.

Trump does not appear to own the vineyard — though he suggested he did during the Republican primary last year, saying at a press conference: "I own it 100 percent, no mortgage, no debt." Instead, it is registered to his son, Eric Trump. So technically this does not violate the two rules Donald Trump laid out for his administration in December: "BUY AMERICAN and HIRE AMERICAN! #USA" On the other hand, Trump got permission to hire 64 foreign guest workers at Mar-a-Lago this winter through the H-2 program. The pay for the Trump Winery job is $11.27 an hour, by the way, though it requires working in very cold weather with "feet in bent positions for long periods of time."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.