7mo ago

Trump wants immigrants gone. He keeps hiring them for his businesses

www.independent.co.uk

Summary

Donald Trump, who has pledged to crack down on immigration, continues to hire foreign guest workers for his businesses at record levels.

In 2024, Trump’s companies, including Mar-a-Lago, his golf courses, and a Virginia winery, hired 209 foreign workers, nearly double the number from a decade ago.

Most were employed under H-2B visas, meant for seasonal jobs when American workers are unavailable.

Critics argue these programs undermine U.S. workers’ bargaining power, while Trump’s allies, like Project 2025, advocate for restricting such visas. Trump has distanced himself from these proposals while continuing to utilize the program.

39 comments

He doesn't want them gone, and neither do any other oligarch.
They want them in a grey legal area, so they can be exploited more efficiently, is all.
Keep illegal immigrants working in farm work. Now, they have now labor protections, and BOOM! MOAR PROFITS!
That's all.
- I could see them putting immigrants in camps and then saying "oh their home country won't take them back. We'll just keep them in camp. Oh and they'll have to work obv. Can't be slackers in america."
  Coincidentally an oligarch will own the camp and the work output.
  Schindlers list style,
- He just want to use immigrants to distract poor people from who is really screwing them over.
  It’s not the billionaires, it’s the guy doing landscaping 7 days a week so his kids don’t have to grow up in a cartel state.
He doesn't actually want them gone. He wants them oppressed and desperate.
That's actually been the standard Republican strategy for as long as I can remember, because they're trying to serve two purposes at the same time. On the one hand they want to appeal to the racists in their party, but on the other hand, they want to ensure that American businesses enjoy uninterrupted access to cheap and desperate labor. And the two actually complement each other pretty well. They can and do foment hatred and promise mass deportations and all of that to appeal to the racists, but never quite manage to actually solve the supposed problem, or even really make any headway on it, which means that businesses can stil take advantage of cheap and desperate labor and there are still "illegals" for the racists to rail against.
Talks of deportation are, mostly, dog whistles. He did the same thing during his first term with H2B labor
- And also to foster an economy of undocumented workers to drive down labor costs.
  They don't want immigrants gone, they want them underpaid and unregulated.
  
  Slaves, they want slaves.
Oh they don't really want them gone, just for them to lose their legal status so they can be underpaid, and won't dare to report any workplace violations under the threat of deportation.
In fact, that's already happening, they just want to convert more Americans' status to "illegal immigrant"
Trump doesn't want anything except money and power. Saying he wants to deport immigrants gets him support from xenophobes and bigots.
- Makes sense. Otherwise with whom will he replace Melania?
He's lying. Everything he says is a lie.
Trump and those up top don't want to deport all the immigrants, they just want a captive labor force too afraid of deportation to rock the boat.
There's 7 comments so far saying Trump doesn't actually want them gone. C'mon guys, he wants immigrants gone. It's pure racism, he wants them gone and he wants a white Christian America. The only question is how far he gets before he croaks.
*I think I know what's going on, everyone here is in the bargaining stage of the 5 stages of grief.
- He doesn’t care either way. All he’s really doing is rallying a community of people in his support who hate brown people.
  As long as there is a group of people willing to support him he will bend in any direction to get them. It turns out getting support from racists is the easiest group to manipulate.
  He’s using this for momentum. That’s how he got elected.
  
  ...That doesn't mean he's not going to deport as many as he can. He can deport all illegal immigrants and there will still be plenty of POC to scapegoat. Then it's on the next thing: Segregation. He likely won't live long enough to do it, but the GOP will go for it.
  And I think he does care (not that I support what he cares about), he is racist through and through.
- make it 8. trump doesn't give a rat's ass about anything but trump. everything he sharts out of his face anus is for the singular purpose of rallying his rabid cult followers to worship him. that's it. he doesn't give a fuck about "christian america." or 100% white america. he wants cheap explloitable labor, which is what all of this 3 ring "deportation" shitshow is all about
  in case it's not clear, he's not deporting 11 million people. don't be gullible
  
  It's the 'do as I say, not as I do'. He's super racist, everyone knows this.
  As for the exact number, it depends on the courts blocking things, the basic logistics of getting enough ICE officers (this is where the court matters if they allow or block use of the military), and the legal hearing people get (also where the courts matter, I bet that Trump wants to bypass that). He will go as far as he can. Y'all need to wake up.
Holy fuck he looks ancient.
- He IS ancient. He is currently 78 and will be 80 by the time mid-terms roll around. And he has not taken good care of his mind or body. Same shit as Biden, crusty old fuck that should not be President for many reasons.
It's alright, he won't actually pay them
He doesn’t care about immigrants.
Not one way, not the other.
He just needs a scapegoat to blame all the problems on, because he can’t afford for his base- who absolutely do hate immigrants- to realize he, and people like him, are in fact the source of most their problems.
I want less work visas for foreign workers. The tech industry isn't competitive for Americans because Indians will do the job cheaper for a visa. It's giving companies too much power over employees

39 comments