Former President Donald Trump has been accused of using language similar to that of Adolf Hitler when discussing immigrants in the United States. A poll conducted by the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that 35% of Trump’s 2020 voters agreed with his rhetoric about the threat posed by immigrants. The Trump Organization, however, had a history of hiring undocumented workers, with The Washington Post reporting that 48 undocumented immigrants had worked for the organization at various properties. The workers described their experiences, including hanging identical golf outfits for Trump and enduring abusive comments from supervisors. After the workers came forward, the Trump Organization audited employees’ immigration papers and began using the E-Verify system to check employment eligibility. However, the issue of undocumented workers at Trump properties has largely faded away since the 2020 election campaign.
Trump has made immigration a major issue for his 2024 presidential campaign, with plans for even more draconian immigration laws than in his first term. These include deporting millions of people without legal status, setting up camps along the border to hold those awaiting deportation, a renewed Muslim travel ban, and ending birthright citizenship. Advocacy groups argue that these policies would be authoritarian and violate the civil rights of immigrants and native-born Americans, as well as tanking the economy. It is worth noting that around 200 undocumented Polish construction workers helped lay the foundation for Trump’s real estate empire in the 1980s. Trump settled a lawsuit in 1998 regarding the workers, agreeing to pay nearly $1.4 million.
Despite these controversies, Trump has continued to enjoy support from his base and Republican politicians. Marco Rubio, a Republican senator from Florida, even brought up the issue of Trump’s hiring of undocumented immigrants during a presidential debate in 2016. However, this did not prevent Trump from winning the nomination and running on a platform of building a wall along the southern border. The article concludes by suggesting that it is not immigrants who are poisoning democracy, but rather individuals like Trump who exploit and mistreat them for personal gain.
