A Lot of Glass in Those Towers, Any Mirrors?
Antonio Olivio of the Washington Post hit the nail on the head in his July 6th column (At Trump hotel site, immigrant workers wary) regarding the building of the new Trump luxury hotel in Washington DC. Ever since Donald Trump made his ill-informed and untrue statements about Mexican and Latino immigrants, the spotlight has been turned onto Mr. Trump and how he earns his millions of dollars on a daily basis. The public has since learned that Mr. Trump earns quite a lot of money on the backs of immigrant labor and even outsourced labor (see the now former Trump clothing line which was made in Mexico and China, among other countries).
As Mr. Olivio noted at the DC Trump project, many of the immigrant workers rise early and commute to the worksite in a professional manner to earn an honest living to support their spouses, children and families. While Mr. Trump’s comments are offensive to them, the need to work and support their families is more important than pride.
However, based on Mr. Trump’s comments about Latino and Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals, which he has voraciously defended as accurate, after reading this article it must be asked, how was Mr. Trump able to find enough professional Latino and Mexican immigrants who were not rapists and criminals to employ? In the alternative, is Mr. Trump knowingly hiring the very criminals he ranted about to shamelessly obtain the media spotlight?
The truth is that Mr. Olivio’s article demonstrates what most Americans already know: the vast majority of Latino and Mexican immigrants are hard-working, self-sufficient proud people with a desire to earn a living and care for their own in the best country in the world. They were not born into a wealthy family and left with a large inheritance like their employer. Rather, they earn each dollar working for a man who values money more than the lives of his employees.
Take a look in one of your mirrors that was likely hung by an immigrant worker and that is now cleaned by an immigrant worker Mr. Trump, you might see someone who has earned a lot of money on the backs of hard working immigrants but has now lost something money cannot buy, self-respect.
Written by Matt Maiona, Member, AILA Media Advocacy Committee