The Labor Department is investigating the visa program Mar-a-Lago uses to hire foreign workers

Dammit. And WHY would anyone be able to dodge this probe?

The Labor Department is investigating the visa program Mar-a-Lago uses to hire foreign workers
The Trump Organization will probably dodge the probe.
By Alexia Fernández Campbell@AlexiaCampbellalexia@vox.com Sep 11, 2018, 4:50pm EDT


The Trump administration says it will ramp up investigations of hotels trying to hire foreign workers for seasonal jobs. The temporary visa program in question is used throughout the hospitality industry — and by the Trump Organization.

The Department of Labor’s new initiative, announced September 5, is supposed to “safeguard American jobs” from employers who might be trying to hire foreign workers at lower rates rather than hiring American workers. But the department gave few details about why they were targeting the hotel industry, and whether or not they would include Trump properties in their review.

Every year, hotels, theme parks, landscaping companies, and country clubs across the US jockey for several of the 66,000 H-2B visas, a type of temporary work visa, that the federal government makes available for non-agricultural jobs.

These visas are valuable, because they allow employers to bring in foreign workers for up to 10 months to take unfilled jobs during a business’s high season. Mar-a-Lago, the president’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida, and a few Trump golf clubs regularly hire housekeepers, cooks and servers through the H-2B visa program.

However, companies are supposed to try and hire American workers before applying for the visas, and must promise to pay them the area’s average wages. But the Department of Labor’s new initiative suggests that many employers may be avoiding hiring American workers for these jobs so that they can save money by paying foreign workers lower-than-average wages.

“Any employer seeking workers under this program must be ready and willing to hire qualified U.S. applicants first,” Bryan Jarrett, administrator of the agency’s Wage and Hour Division, said in a statement on Wednesday. (As of publication, a spokesperson for the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division had not responded to Vox’s request for more information about the new initiative.)

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https://www.vox.com/2018/9/11/17845846/trump-h2b-visa-guest-workers-mar-a-lago