Undocumented and Working for Trump

[0] I think we're, well, we're on our way to Bound Brook, New Jersey.

[1] We're in, I believe we're in, if I'm reading my map correctly, we're in southbound Brook.

[2] It looks like we're about 15 minutes south of Bedminster, which is where the president's golf club and country house are.

[3] Are we here?

[4] This, is the address is, it's supposed to be a green house, yeah?

[5] Okay, I think we'll just get out.

[6] Let's let's tell her we are here.

[7] Thank you.

[8] Welcome to Vicki's.

[9] Hi.

[10] Hi.

[11] I'm obviously not Vicki.

[12] How are you?

[13] Hi.

[14] Thank you very much.

[15] Hi.

[16] Oh, much.

[17] Oh, thank you.

[18] She should come back after being away a week, so she's apologizing that it's not as new as it ought to be.

[19] Yeah, we told her whether it's in.

[20] What are we sitting?

[21] We'll chat.

[22] I don't want to get a whole way.

[23] So how we're going to go away?

[24] is Michael's going to ask questions in English as he knows how to speak.

[25] And then if you would help translate and then...

[26] I'm going to be just kind of a conversation.

[27] We'll make it work.

[28] Cheers.

[29] This, very good.

[30] It's a good to have them here in casa.

[31] Vicki welcomed you all into her home.

[32] She says it's a humble home.

[33] She's an immigrant.

[34] She loves this country.

[35] And she'd like to share with you why she's a place.

[36] Well, I want to thank you because we're grateful to be here.

[37] I guess my first question is just how are you doing?

[38] How are you holding up, given everything that's just happened in the past few days?

[39] Vicki said that she's feeling better because she has left this place where she was working.

[40] She is relieved that she's come out of this place where she felt fear.

[41] From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro.

[42] This is The Daily.

[43] Today, last week, Victorina Morales came forward and said that for the last five years, she had been working as an undocumented immigrant at President Trump's golf club in New Jersey.

[44] A couple of days ago, we visited her in her home with Times immigration reporter Miriam Jordan, who first broke the story.

[45] Friday, December 14th.

[46] Okay, I want to know more about your experience before you came to the United States and where you came from.

[47] So maybe you can describe the place where you are from.

[48] I'm going to Guatemala.

[49] Where I go no is Caserio, no is Pueblo.

[50] I think he says that she comes from the countryside from a place where her house was all alone in a particular area to go from one place to another because there was an electric.

[51] people used a flashlight to guide the way.

[52] That's what you turned this water bottle into, a flashlight.

[53] Vicky said that she comes from a very poor background, extremely humble.

[54] I ate frioles, spinach, no, no. So at what age did you decide to leave Guatemala?

[55] And what exactly motivated you to leave?

[56] She was 35 years old when she came to the United States.

[57] It was 1999.

[58] She wanted to give her children a better life, and she'd heard that you could make good money in America.

[59] So her husband came ahead, and she followed.

[60] It took her a month and a half to journey from Guatemala all the way to the border in California.

[61] She came caminando, caminando, caminando, caminando, walking, walking, walking the whole way through Mexico.

[62] She said that they only hopped in a car when they were chased on occasion to escape.

[63] On arrival at the border, she spent those last two weeks waiting for the right moment to cross.

[64] Okay, when I got to Los Angeles, there me received the coyote.

[65] When she crossed the border in California, she was met by a coyote or a smuggler who took her to Los Angeles, where he bought her a plane ticket and told her that she would be on her way to meet her husband in New Jersey.

[66] She said that she felt this great sense of fulfillment and satisfaction of finally being in this country.

[67] She said, thank God, thanks God, thank God I'm here.

[68] And this might seem like a small matter, but how did you get on a plane at that point or do anything without documents?

[69] Or did you get documents?

[70] In Los Angeles, the man who made me mando in an avion, he made two papelitos as soon.

[71] In Los Angeles, the gentleman who helped her get on the plane gave her two small pieces of paper as she puts it.

[72] And he told her that they're good for her to get work.

[73] And when you apply for any job, this is what you need.

[74] So keep them.

[75] And Miriam, what's your understanding of what these documents were?

[76] It's quite clear that the documents were a fake social security card and a green card or a permanent residence card, which immigrants typically need to present to secure work.

[77] And it sounds like that may have kind of come along with whatever the transaction was with the coyote.

[78] Yeah, I think it's a package deal in which, you know, this network of people brought her across the border, supplied her with documents, got her a plane ticket, and made sure she ended up in her home right here in New Jersey.

[79] And how, Vicky, did you end up working at the Trump National Bedminster Golf Course, the golf club?

[80] Okay, a friend of Vickie's told her that there was work at the golf club and that the pay was very good.

[81] Vicki, how did you know that this would be a place that would be okay with employing someone like you who did not have legal status?

[82] Well, I said to the man, but he no necessities good.

[83] Because he said her friend, you're sure you don't need good papers to work there because she knew a powerful man owned that golf club.

[84] No, no, no, no, he said, no import.

[85] This is the first time I think I can translate.

[86] He said, that's not important.

[87] We have many immigrants here without papers.

[88] It's fine.

[89] As this process continues, at some point, does someone ask you for papers of any kind?

[90] Picky arrived for her interview on a Sunday morning.

[91] The housekeeping supervisor drove up in a golf cart and asked her to hop in, and they went to visit some of the.

[92] suites on the property that are around the pool.

[93] And the supervisor asked Vicky what kind of work she knew how to do.

[94] And she said, well, you know, I can...