CNN anchor Jake Tapper confronted the director of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency on Sunday with reports of undocumented immigrants working at businesses owned by President Donald Trump.
During CNN’s State of the Union, Tapper interviewed acting CBP commissioner Mark Morgan about recent raids on businesses employing undocumented migrants. Citing a weekend report by The Washington Post about the Trump Organization’s hiring of undocumented migrants, Tapper asked why the president’s businesses have never been raided.
“This is just one of many headlines about undocumented immigrants working for President Trump’s properties—whether it’s his construction crews, [people] working at his properties [or people] working at his golf clubs. There have been zero raids on any of these companies despite headline after headline after headline,” Tapper pointed out. “It seems like you guys are turning a blind eye to this crime being committed by the president’s own companies,” he said.
Instead of addressing why Trump’s companies have not been targeted, Morgan, previously acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said he took “offense” at anybody saying agents had “turned a blind eye to someone that is violating the law.”
But Tapper pressed his point, saying he didn’t understand why there’s “never been a raid” or “any sort of law enforcement investigation” at Trump properties.
Morgan responded that Tapper could not “say that for sure,” arguing that investigations are often ongoing without the public being aware and it would “jeopardize” one if he talked about it on the show.
According tothe Post— and numerous other media outlets—at least eight Trump properties have employed undocumented workers.
Drew Angerer/Getty
Former Trump Organization employee Jorge Castro told the Post that “papers don’t matter” to the president’s companies if you’re “a good worker.” The Ecuadorian immigrant, who does not have legal status in the U.S., worked for the Trump Organization for nine years until last spring.
Trump says he “doesn’t want undocumented people in the country,” Castro said. “But at his properties, he still has them.”
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