The Trump Organization has fired at least 18 undocumented workers over the past two months, The Washington Post reported Monday.
The purge of workers reported by the Post followed repeated reports about President Donald Trump’s company employing undocumented immigrants despite the President’s near-constant focus on the issue of immigration.
Trump’s son Eric confirmed to the Post that the firings took place. The newspaper reported the dismissals took place across five New York and New Jersey golf courses.
The Trump Organization said in a statement to CNN that the company would institute “E-Verify at all applicable properties and will continue to take swift and appropriate action where necessary.”
The statement said the company “initiated a comprehensive review of employee eligibility across all of our properties” last month after reports about undocumented workers and fired employees who had “provided falsified documents.”
“Obviously, terminating one’s employment is never something we wish to do,” the statement read. “Many of our employees have been with us for years and are an extension of our family. Still, after being confronted with this issue, we had no choice.”
The Post reported previously on about a dozen undocumented employees at Trump National Golf Club in New York who hailed from Latin America and were fired during the government shutdown last month.
Some fired workers have spoken out since their firings, with a group asking Congress for support last month and one woman, Victorina Morales, slated to attend Trump’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday after New Jersey Democratic Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman extended an invitation.
The Washington Post reported Monday the Trump Organization had also fired undocumented workers at another golf club in New York and three clubs in New Jersey.
Anibal Romero, an attorney who represents several of the fired workers, told CNN’s Sarah Jorgensen that one of his clients, Juan Quintero, worked at Trump National Golf Club Hudson Valley for 18 years.
Romero described Quintero as “one of the most trusted employees of Eric Trump” and called the employees “material witnesses of a federal crime.”
CNN’s Sarah Jorgensen and Cristina Alesci contributed to this report.
