When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.
– Donald Trump in the speech announcing his candidacy for President
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.
“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.
– From the Washington Post article: At Trump Hotel Site, Immigrant Workers Wary
Donal Trump is a class A clown, but readers of this website don’t need me to tell them that. It’s one thing to be strongly against illegal immigration. It’s quite another to demonize and stereotype Mexican immigrants, the vast majority of whom come here merely to work hard and create better lives for their families. Kind of like the many immigrants working on Trump’s mega construction project in D.C.
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.
“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.
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.”
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.
Of course, I’m sure Trump was somehow able to find the tiny minority of decent, hard working Mexicans for his hotel project, while diligently weeding out the endless stream of drug dealers and rapists Mr. Trump insists can be found all over America.
Total clown.
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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– “Total clown.”
Michael, what’s your point?
That we should provide free buses to move much more illegals through the border?
Or you prefer to build a good fence, after all?
My point is we should all be concerned that such a hypocritical blowhard like this clown is surging in the polls.
My point is also that you can be against illegal immigration and also against demonizing entire groups of people in the way Trump did.
I thought my point was clear.
Who cares about a “demonization” if there are all the conditions and opportunities for the illegals to move to the US?
As for the demonization, do you consider that the Mr. Trump’s concept that for criminals from Mexico it is convenient solution to move to the US to “clean up their records” is not relevant?
I’m saying Trump is playing to the worst aspects of human nature. If you are against illegal immigration, then you are against illegal immigration. Stick to the point as opposed to getting people riled up and angry thinking all illegals are rapists and criminals. This is a Nazi-esque strategy of scapegoating for political gain.
– “This is a Nazi-esque strategy of scapegoating for political gain.”
Is Trump suggesting to build a fence or to hunt the illegals instead?
If it is the former then it is a wrong interpretation of his words.
People always differ in interpretations of everything said.
Have you read any of Hitler’s speeches? He never talks about gassing women and children.
These types always start with demonizations, making groups of weak people seem less than human. Then the bad stuff happens in the shadows. We aren’t there by any means, but we need to be vigilant.
Stick to the issues. No need to demonize. If you are against illegal immigration it shouldn’t matter if they are hard working or criminals.
Conservative trash like Trump claim to be for free market but then want government thugs (aka police) when businesses hire people he doesn’t like. This is nothing new, this is has been Pat Buchanan’s tune for decades but at the very least Buchanan can never be mistaken for someone who likes the free market.
– “If you are against illegal immigration it shouldn’t matter if they are hard working or criminals. ”
I agree.
I just do not consider what he had said a demonization.
And it seems he is one of the very few who is not shy about the need to solve this problem with the flood of illlegals as soon as possible.
– “Conservative trash like Trump claim to be for free market ”
Free market has nothing in common with the current disastrous flood of the illegals.
The very idea of a possibility of free market in the US with the currently dishonest and unconstitutional money printing and the criminal manipulation of all markets sounds very sarcastic. ))
Here in Texas we have many, many illegals as well as legal Hispanic immigrants. Funny, in all the years I’ve lived here I have NEVER seen one Hispanic-appearing person at the stoplight with a cardboard sign. Only have seen a handful of blacks, less than a handful.
You see tons of white males, many with excellent physiques, young, in the prime of life want to “God Bless Me” for handing them walking around money.
We have an immigration problem. We have those who inflame the racial problem. But I sure don’t need to take advice from someone whose idea of those who come here is that almost all of them are criminally violent people. If Trump thinks that will get him elected, he is way past help.
Trump gives clowns a bad name.
So I guess we don’t require immigration laws. Just cross over any way you can, have some U.S. born kids and call it a life. Meanwhile those from other countries who queue up for years can just sit tight. To add insult, if you’re here illegally from Mexico you can get a drivers license by simply taking the test, in Spanish no less. My wife, who came here from Thailand was afforded no such luxury. She had to learn enough English to pass the test. She’s now going for a high school equivalency degree. They currently have tests other than the GED for high school equivalency such as HISET and TASC. Guess what, you can take these tests in Spanish.
Yes, I understand. My mother came here from Chile and became a citizen legally.
You missed the point of the article. It’s fine to be against illegal immigration, what I don’t think is helpful is the demonization and insulting language used by Trump.
I guess we have to be just nice and politically correct to those who despise and blatantly disregard the law of this country!
Who constitute more that 50% of the prison population of some states. Let aside their taking jobs from the poorest of the US citizenry.
Additionally we have to be absolutely happy that by this the very demography of the country is changing for the worse by increasing percentage of potentially democratic voters.
I don’t think you want to understand the point of the story and the clarifications Michael has made. It is NOT to whitewash the immigration problem, it is NOT to downplay crime.
It is to say NO to demonizing an entire people for what some have done.
Let me ask you a question: Should Trump be judged because 99.9% of those who have pillaged the system for tens of millions of people look exactly like him? White, privileged, senior years.
If we’re going to typecast, doesn’t that mean it’s fair to call all of us angry white males corrupt trash for sharing physical characteristics, nationality and language with the real criminals?
– “Let me ask you a question: Should Trump be judged because 99.9% of those who have pillaged the system for tens of millions of people look exactly like him? White, privileged, senior years.”
Frankly speaking I do not understand even logic of the people, who would manage to draw such a distorted and ugly conclusion from what Trump had said!
Only those who believe that people of the US are infantile and absolutely brainless have any reason to be involved with such primitive interpretation of Trump’s words and his intent.
As far as I am aware he has not referred to any features like “physical characteristics, nationality and language” but only to one that is being in this country illegally and to the fact that those illegals are disproportionate law beakers and constitute a disproportionately large part of the prison population in the states where they are in significant numbers. And he suggests to do something real to solve this problem before it is too late.
As a matter of fact I am taking this hysteria about Trump together with the initiative of removing the confederate flag as a racism symbol.
Those who manipulate the people are assuming that people do not know the history of the country.
That the Civil War had initially had anything to do with slavery. Those manipulators assume the people have no wits to know that the war was about the rights of the states on one hand and the unconstitutional encroachments of the federal government on the other.
Yes, the latter has won by crashing the rights of the people.
The issue of slavery was attached to the war during the later part of it for the purely tactical reasons.What the statists’ controlled educational system of the US has been doing is distorting the history by pretending that Lincoln was a antislavery champion. He was not! He was a suppressor of the freedom of the people.
So the confederate flag is not at all a symbol of racism but the symbol of the freedom and defiance of the freedom lovers!
I think that this hysteria is only all about trying to remove the only decent candidate who at least we can hope has a chance of being independent of the sinister forces who control this country just because he in independently rich. By insinuating that he is a Nazi champion!
How naive. People should finally open their eyes and realize that Mexico has some serious problem with violence, drugs, and loads of other things. What it will help them if you just invite them ‘all’ to US and let them disrespect your laws?! Nothing is going to solve itself this way, it will only create more problems to everyone. I think Trump definitely has a point… Just look at statistics especially regarding crime not only in US but especially in Mexico and many other third world countries. They have something really serious going on there. If you notice the poorest nations always have some kind of dictatorship or extreme inequality and violence – because people living in these countries are allowing it through their way of thinking. There is no point in inviting these people to more developed countries if they do not want to change their thinking. Democracy doesn’t mean that you have to excuse bad decisions of other nations and even encourage it on your own land with superior values. I think that the next revolution is actually going to be the one which exposes the propaganda of the extreme Left spreading a lot today. I also think that Liberalism today is bordering with Anarchy.
Why not pass a law that puts employer in jail,no ands ifs or buts, fine the companies huge penalties, if the people who hire them were held accountable getting a job would be impossible, employers know these people work hard and for less in unsafe conditions. Mexicans working in factories building Fords and other things America consume make $30.weekly, can you take care of your family on that?