Majestic hypocrisy

The claim of many (perhaps most) of Donald Trump supporters regarding undocumented immigrants can be summed up in one common phrase: “Those immigrants are taking our jobs, ruining our country”. And the solution offered from the very beginning by then presidential candidate Donald Trump was quite simple: kick out of the USA all undocumented immigrants, estimated to be somewhere around 11 million, and almost like magic there will be 11 million new job openings for US workers and unemployment in the USA will disappear for the first time in its long history. Indeed, it has become the official US policy as outlined by President Trump himself to “Establish new immigration controls to boost wages and to ensure that open jobs are offered to American workers first”.

It is still too early to tell if the massive deportations ordered by Donald Trump and which ICE has been ordered to carry out whatever the cost to the US economy of kicking out millions of hard working undocumented aliens will be carried out just as intended. However, there are mixed signals coming from Washington.

It was recently stated here in this blog on March 6th 2017 that if the major promise regarding immigration made by Donald Trump is to be carried out just as originally stated and confirmed, a major crack in the economy of California could be anticipated this growing season due to a severe lack of farm workers in the fields of California willing to work the long hours required to pick up the harvest in the farms of California; with a lot of produce rotting in the fields due to the lack of foreign workers. Indeed, that entry was titled “Second test of character for Mr. Donald Trump”. So, the President has spoken, and he has done so through his executive orders. So let it be written, so let it be done (with Passover near, it reminds me of the Egyptian Pharaoh in the times of Moses).

Well, is that so?

A story made known by the Associated Press news agency and published all around the world on March 20th and March 21st 2017 reveals that, right now (YES, MISTER TRUMP, RIGHT NOW!) a son of Donald Trump himself is looking for foreign workers instead of making any attempts to fill the job opening with American workers, making all those blue collar workers who voted for Trump look like perfect idiots who've just been had.

Under the heading Trump Winery in Virginia seeks more foreign workers, the AP news story goes like this:

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — As President Donald Trump touts job creation for Americans as a top priority, his son's Virginia winery is seeking permission to hire foreign workers to cultivate its grapes.

Trump Vineyard Estates, better known as Trump Winery, asked to bring in 29 workers this season through the federal H-2A visa program, The Daily Progress reported (http://bit.ly/2nL4wDB ). The program enables agricultural employers who anticipate a shortage of domestic workers to bring foreign workers to the U.S. to do agricultural jobs or perform other temporary or seasonal services.

Trump Vineyard Estates, owned by Eric Trump, initially applied for six foreign workers in December. Two months later, the company applied for 23 more. Both job orders for Trump Vineyard Estates say the primary tasks include planting and cultivating vines, adding grow tubes and pruning grape vines.

H-2A workers and U.S. workers in corresponding employment must be paid a certain rate — $10.72 an hour for vineyard farm workers in Virginia this year. To apply, employers say they've been unable to find American citizens to fill the jobs. At least three other local vineyards also applied to hire foreign workers.

"It's difficult to find people," said Libby Whitley, an attorney who has worked with employers, including Trump Winery, on labor issues.

But news reports that followed the winery's December requests for the visas prompted criticism over the request. Trump campaigned on promises to create new jobs for American workers and used harsh rhetoric to talk about immigrants, including his promise to build a border wall to keep out people from Mexico and Central America who make up much of the migrant workforce in the U.S.

Whitely said she assumed her company would be flooded with people applying for the jobs because of the media coverage of the winery's initial request.

"Guess how many applicants we had? ... 13," she said. "And they were all from places like the Philippines, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria. We did not have one American worker apply on (the first job order)."

Several people have sent emails to show they are outraged that Trump winery is hiring foreigners, Whitley said.

"I qualify every one of those responses and I say, 'Are you interested in the job? If you are, please get in touch with us immediately,'" Whitley said.

Trump Winery didn't respond to the newspaper's request for comment.

We are not talking about highly skilled jobs that require rocket scientists in order to get the job done. We are talking about lower end menial jobs in the farm which any unemployed American should be able to do whatever his education level. But much more important, we are talking about something being done by a son of President Trump himself. Surely he must now about this, surely he is perfectly aware of what is going on at the vineyard owned by his own son, surely he must know that his own son in an act of defiance against the wishes of his father he is offering all those jobs in the vineyard not to American workers but to workers brought from overseas, perhaps from Mexico.

This AP news report comes in the heels of a program segment aired Sunday March 19th 2017 on the well known weekly documentary of CBS network entitled 60 Minutes, dealing with an issue which should be of legitimate concern for highly skilled American workers whose American jobs are being outsourced under a loophole allowed by the H-1B visa that lets companies recruit foreign talent for emerging engineering and scientific jobs. Indeed, H-1B visas have been abused from the beginning by using the loophole which dates as far back as 1998. With a Republican controlled Congress in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, it should be an easy matter to just simply close the loophole, with approval from President Trump expected almost immediately since Donald Trump made such abuse of H-1B visas part of his campaign to correct the immigration system which he claims is against the American worker. But hold on a minute! Will such a loophole be closed next week by the Republican controlled Congress? How about two weeks from now? Or how about one month from now? Hey, we are talking about American jobs that are at stake here, not menial manual jobs that require no special training or education! Well, there is a small problem here. Even before Congress makes a move to close the loophole, all the special interests that would be severely affected can be expected to scream and scream very loudly, warning of vengeance against those congressmen who actually may vote to repeal the H-1B visa 1998 loophole. So the odds that such a repeal of the 1998 loophole will come very soon are dim at best. Truth of the matter is, it has always been this way. This Janus-faced attitude of investing oneself with a moralistic attitude while at the same time letting something awfully wrong to continue if it serves the best interests of the US economy as a whole is reproachable, but that is the way an empire works. It has always been that way, ever since slavery was instituted as acceptable whey the Thirteen Colonies became the United States of America. Perhaps it will always be that way.

But back to the issue of the son of President Trump hiring foreign workers instead of hiring American workers. If President Trump does not do something right away by giving a good spanking to his own son and demanding him to give all those jobs to American workers, then President Trump will manifest himself (one more time) as a buffoon, a clown, an entertainer who said a lot of things just to get elected, with many gullible blue collar workers jumping into the bandwagon just to be kicked out of the bandwagon once the elections had passed.

The son of Donald Trump, his own flesh and blood, didn't discover anything new that was not already known for a long time. Seven years ago the United Farm Workers union once launched a campaign entitled Take our jobs! inviting the typical unemployed American worker to fill the slot vacancies in the agricultural fields of the USA. Only three people signed up. As a matter of fact, not even imprisoned inmates are in the mood to do that kind of work for the pay it offers. US Immigration has always known about this, as it also has known about the farms where thousands of undocumented Mexican immigrants can be rounded up at this very moment for a quick deportation (and thus help Donald Trump fulfill his campaign promises regarding undocumented immigration), but after major fiascoes like the Postville raid tha sent an entire town into bankruptcy (a town made up of taxpayers who end up paying the salaries of the US Immigration agents and officers who deprive them of their work force!) the pressure was eased off somewhat on such raids, but now that Donald Trump is in power it remains to be seen if US Immigration will blindly obey the orders of the Chief Executive even if it means ruining a good chunk of the US economy and stalling the economic recovery that still is Obama's most important legacy.

There is, however, a more important issue at stake here, and it has to do with the second test of character of Donald Trump as President. He already failed his first test of character with the North Korean issue, that will go down into the history books as such. But if he remains firm on his promise to deport all 11 million or so undocumented aliens including all those farm workers in California, thereby sending the economy of California into bankruptcy, while at the same time aiding and abetting his own kiddo in the hiring of foreign workers to do things that in principle can be done by unemployed American workers with no major skills required (assuming they are willing to do such work), it is almost certain that the farms growers of California will wail and will complain very loudly even before Donald Trump had had a chance to remove even one half of the undocumented workers who are already hard at work this Spring 2017 at the California farms. They will have every right to do so, they will have every reason in the world to complain against such inequity.  And if a stubborn Donald Trump as President insists of depriving all the California farm growers of their undocumented work force while at the same time patting his own son thus throwing a spit in the eye at the American worker, Californians may indeed come to the conclusion that the time has come to call it quits and break apart from the United States of America and go it alone instead of being squashed by someone who didn't even win by the popular vote. And that would be really something to see.

ICE already knows where the California farms most likely to hire undocumented aliens are located (if it claims it doesn't, Homeland Security can instruct the IRS to hand over such information to ICE). And in a matter of months ICE can remove at least one fourth of undocumented workers from all the farms of California, regardless of the economic cost to a state where some of its inhabitants are already considering breaking apart from the USA. It would be a gargantuan task, but it can be done. As a matter of fact, ICE can go a little bit further here, by arresting the owners of California farms who employ undocumented aliens, applying to them employer sanctions (those employer sanctions are already in the books, no need for Congress to act here), and throwing them all to jail provided there are enough federal jails where to throw them. It is just a matter of ICE being willing to do the job that the President of the USA himself has ordered ICE to do. And, if as a final result, California votes to separate itself from the USA, Donald Trump will still go into the history books not merely as the President who made true on his word, but as the President under whom the breakup of the USA began to take place, with ICE of course taking part of the credit.

Of course, there is another alternative, and that alternative is to keep the status quo, leave things just as they are, untouched, leave things just as they have been for a very long time, even though this may amount to an act of majestic hypocrisy fit for a King, or in this case, a President, the President of the United States of America. Just like the Three Wise Monkeys. And in doing so, stick it somewhere to the American blue collar workers who trusted Donald Trump to keep his word and who will end up very disappointed after having voted for him.

Are you listening, Eric Trump? Are you listening, Mister President?