The Trump Organization Sought To Hire 87 Foreign Workers At Mar-A-Lago This Year

As Republican politicians flock to Mar-a-Lago this fall to seek the former president’s support, they’ll be waited on by people whose presence many of them have railed against: foreign workers. 

Earlier this year, Mar-a-Lago sought up to 87 temporary foreign workers to cook, clean and wait tables this winter, according to job orders posted on the Department of Labor’s website. Pay for the positions, which run from October 2021 through May 2022, start at $11.70 an hour.  

Citizen and Immigration Services’ guidelines permit employers to hire short-term temporary foreign workers if “there are not enough U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified and available to do the temporary work.” In July, when Mar-a-Lago first advertised the positions, unemployment in Florida was 5.1%. 

Mar-a-Lago’s reliance on foreign workers seems at odds with former President Donald Trump’s stance on immigration. His White House tried to prevent employers from relying on foreign workers, but it did so by targeting permanent employees—not the temporary ones Mar-a-Lago uses.  

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The club is looking for more workers this year than it has in the past. Three years ago, Mar-a-Lago sought out 78 foreign employees, then bumped that figure to 80 the next year. Labor Department records don’t show any requests from Mar-a-Lago for foreign workers last season, when the pandemic was in full swing. The Palm Beach Post first reported on the request for this year. 

Mar-a-Lago is not the only Trump property looking for foreign help. Trump’s nearby Palm Beach golf club hoped to hire as many as five temporary foreign workers as servers, while Trump Winery sought 23 foreigners to work in its vineyards. The farmworkers were set to depart in mid-October, just weeks after Mar-a-Lago’s temporary foreign workers were scheduled to arrive. 

Spokespeople for the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to inquiries.