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Attorney for two alleged Trump National Golf Club undocumented workers calls for investigation

Posted at 8:32 PM, Dec 08, 2018
and last updated 2018-12-08 22:32:39-05

(CNN) — The lawyer for two women who claim they were undocumented workers at Trump National Golf Club is calling for state and federal investigations into the Trump Organization’s hiring practices.

Victorina Morales, 47, and Sandra Diaz, 46, came forward publicly this week alleging that managers at the Bedminster, New Jersey, club hired them both as housekeepers despite knowing of their undocumented status.

Morales and Diaz’s accounts were first reported by The New York Times.

“We have documentary evidence, we have the testimony of workers, we have the fraudulent documents — all of this could be provided to federal authorities and or state authorities,” Anibal Romero told CNN in an interview in New York. “Both of my clients are willing to cooperate with federal and state authorities.”

Morales, a Guatemalan native, tells CNN she crossed illegally into the United States in 1999 and was hired at the golf club in 2013. Diaz, who’s from Costa Rica and is now a legal resident of the United States, said she was an undocumented worker when she worked at Bedminster between 2010 and 2013.

“We have tens of thousands of employees across our properties and have very strict hiring practices,” Amanda Miller, a spokeswoman for the Trump Organization, said in a statement provided to CNN. “If any employee submitted false documentation in an attempt to circumvent the law, they will be terminated immediately.”

No public criminal or civil actions have been filed against the Trump Organization regarding the allegations from Morales and Diaz and two other women mentioned by The New York Times.

Morales and Diaz tell CNN they do not believe Trump was aware of the alleged illegal hiring practices and said they even have fond memories of their early years working at the Trump property.

In an interview with CNN, Diaz claimed that managers at the Bedminster club arranged for fraudulent documents to keep her employed.

After Morales was hired in 2013, she said she was taken off the club premises to an off-site location and provided with a bogus Social Security card and ID.

Morales also told CNN that after Trump became President, her manager became more aggressive towards employees and claimed she was repeatedly threatened with deportation.

Morales is currently petitioning for asylum from the US government. Her case has a hearing scheduled for December 17.

Diaz told CNN that she decided to go public in part because of what she called “a whole new level of hypocrisy.”

The President uses hardline immigration rhetoric, yet his organization is doing the opposite, Diaz told CNN.