Washington Post
By Antonio Olivo
July 6, 2015
For
weeks, dozens of construction workers from Latin America have streamed
onto the site of the Old Post Office Pavilion in downtown Washington and
taken pride in their
work building one of the city’s newest luxury hotels.
But
that job site is now laden with tension after the man behind the
project — billionaire developer Donald Trump — put himself at the center
of the nation’s debate over
illegal immigration.
Trump
garnered headlines — and prompted several business associates to sever
relations with him — when he launched his bid for the Republican
presidential nomination last
month with a controversial description of drug dealers and “rapists”
crossing the border each day into the United States from Mexico.
But
a Trump company may be relying on some undocumented workers to finish
the $200 million hotel, which will sit five blocks from the White House
on Pennsylvania Avenue,
according to several who work there. A Trump spokeswoman said the
company and its contractors follow all applicable laws. But in light of
Trump’s comments, some of the workers at the site said they are now
worried about their jobs — while others simply expressed
disgust over the opinions of the man ultimately responsible for the
creation of those jobs.
Real
estate mogul Donald Trump said during his presidential announcement
that many Mexicans crossing into the United States are drug traffickers
and rapists, though he
said he assumes some are "good people." (AP)
All
of them said they have been talking about Trump ever since his
inflammatory remarks dominated coverage of his presidential announcement
on June 16.
“It’s
something ironic,” said Ivan Arellano, 29, who is from Mexico and
obtained legal status through marriage. He now works as a mason laying
the stonework for the lobby
floor and walls of what will become the Trump International Hotel.
“The
majority of us are Hispanics, many who came illegally,” Arellano said
in Spanish. “And we’re all here working very hard to build a better life
for our families.”
Interviews
with about 15 laborers helping renovate the Old Post Office Pavilion
revealed that many of them had crossed the U.S-Mexico border illegally
before they eventually
settled in the Washington region to build new lives.
Several
of the men, who hail mostly from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala,
have earned U.S. citizenship or legal status through immigration
programs targeting Central
Americans fleeing civil wars or natural disasters. Others quietly
acknowledged that they remain in the country illegally.
“Most
of the concern is that this escalates into a bigger problem,” said
Daniel Gonzalez, 45, a sheet metal worker from El Salvador who crossed
the border in the 1980s
to escape his country’s civil war. He became a U.S. citizen after a
federal immigration judge granted him asylum, he said.
“He might come one day and pretty much tell us to get the heck out of here,” Gonzalez said of Trump.
Several
of the laborers — who travel to work from as far away as Baltimore or
Manassas, Va., every day — fumed at Trump’s comments, saying that they
have led honest lives
that have allowed them to buy homes and raise U.S.-born children.
“Do
you think that when we’re hanging out there from the eighth floor that
we’re raping or selling drugs?” Ramon Alvarez, 48, a window worker from
El Salvador, said during
a break Monday morning just outside the construction site. “We’re
risking our lives and our health. A lot of the chemicals we deal with
are toxic.”
In
response to questions from The Washington Post, Hope Hicks, a
spokeswoman for the Trump Organization, issued a statement saying that
the company and its contractors
followed all applicable U.S. immigration laws when hiring the site’s
several hundred workers.
“Our
contractors are required to have prospective employees produce
documentation that establishes identity and employment eligibility in
compliance with immigration law,”
the e-mailed statement said.
Lend
Lease, the lead contractor at the site, “requires all contractors
performing work at the project to follow all applicable federal, state
and local laws,” the statement
said.
Michael
D. Cohen, executive vice president and legal counsel to Trump, said the
question of illegal hiring practices had not arisen before at a Trump
work site.
“Mr.
Trump, who is the 100 percent owner of the Old Post Office, hired one
of the largest contractors in the world to act as the general
contractor,” Cohen said in a telephone
interview. “That company is Lend Lease. They then go out and employ
subcontractors to work for them. The obligation to check all workers on
site is exclusive to Lend Lease. This of course assumes that the
assertion regarding the employees’ status is accurate.”
A spokeswoman for Lend Lease declined to comment on any aspects of the project, which is expected to be finished by early 2016.
Hicks, also a spokeswoman for Trump’s political operation, said the campaign had no comment on the matter.
Trump’s
comments about illegal immigration — which included a promise to “build
a great, great wall on our southern border” and bill Mexico for the
cost — reflect deep-rooted
concerns among conservative voters over the effect of illegal
immigration in the United States. Yet, concerns raised by workers at one
of his company’s real estate ventures reveal the complexities of an
issue that has long polarized the country.
The
rapid rejection of Trump’s comments by some of his business partners
may also reflect how perilous a topic immigration is, not just for Trump
but the entire Republican
presidential field.
Trump’s
comments were popular with conservative activists across the country —
and may even have helped elevate his status, with polls in the early
nominating states Iowa
and New Hampshire showing him gaining ground. But they were less
popular among an increasingly diverse general electorate that serves as a
consumer base for the influential corporate entities that were quick to
distance themselves from the mogul’s remarks.
The
NBC television network, the Macy’s department store chain and several
other businesses have since severed ties with Trump — part of a backlash
that has cheered Democrats
and caused worry among Republicans seeking to win more Latino votes.
On
Monday, several hundred people had also signed an online petition
asking D.C. chef José Andrés to “dump Trump” by backing out of his deal
to open the flagship restaurant
at Trump’s hotel.
At
the mammoth construction site in Washington that bears Trump’s name,
workers said the controversy has caused some worry as they sandblast
through layers of chipped
paint in the 114-year-old building, install air-conditioning systems
that will cool the new hotel’s 271 guest rooms, or cling to a
scaffolding while they install windows.
The
site is a bustling microcosm of blue-collar work life in Washington —
with soaring turrets and a majestic clock tower that evoke the
building’s heyday as the District’s
main post office in the early 20th century.
Trucks
roll in and out of the construction site carrying heavy loads of cement
or carting off piles of debris. Over the din of surrounding traffic,
foremen yell instructions
to their charges, urging them to press forward on a project that will
also include a massive ballroom, high-end restaurants and two luxurious
suites in the former offices of the postmaster general.
Arms
covered in dust, crowds of men recently took a break just outside the
site while still wearing their hard hats and bright yellow construction
vests, smoking cigarettes
or arguing about sports in both English and Spanish.
Ahmad
Samadi, 26, a site foreman who arrived last year from Afghanistan under
U.S. political asylum, said he has had to learn some Spanish to
communicate with his crew.
“Most of the workers here are migrants,” he said. Pausing, Samadi added
about Trump: “I don’t think it’s right, what he said. They’re hard
workers.”
For
David Montoya, 28, Trump’s comments are a harsh reminder that anyone
who is not a U.S. citizen is vulnerable to stricter immigration laws in
the country. A truck driver
at the hotel site, Montoya arrived from El Salvador in 1997, gaining
temporary protected status from deportation in 2001. “Every 18 months, I
have to get it renewed,” he said, in perfect English, adding that he
dreams of permanent legal status.
Montoya
reflected on his journey as an immigrant, which now includes three
U.S.-born children and a house that he and his wife own in a quiet
section of Silver Spring,
Md. He noted with pride that he thinks his story — one of coming to a
new world, and of hard work paying off — is more impressive than that of
the powerful developer whose name adorned the sign behind him as he
spoke.
“Actually,” he reflected, “we’re more American than him.”
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