Illegal immigrants fired from Trump National Golf Club during gov't shutdown: report

About a dozen employees at Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, N.Y., were fired Jan. 18 after it was learned they are illegal immigrants, according to published reports.

Among the employees were those who won awards for their work performance, had the keys to Eric Trump's weekend home and knew to serve President Donald Trump his chicken wings as two orders on one plate, according to the Washington Post.

What happened?

A Jan. 18 meeting with a human resources rep from Trump headquarters ended it all. An audit found that their immigration documents were fake, the report stated.

"Unfortunately, this means the club must end its employment relationship with you today," a Trump executive told the employees in a recorder that one of workers gave to the Post.

"I started to cry," Gabriel Sedano, a former maintenance worker from Mexico, told the news outlet. "I told them they needed to consider us. I had worked almost 15 years for them in this club, and I'd given the best of myself to this job."

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have managed the president's businesses since he took office. But the Trump organization is now getting rid of employees who were hired by submitting bogus paperwork. The January firings follow the release of undocumented workers at a Trump club in New Jersey last year.

"We are making a broad effort to identify any employee who has given false and fraudulent documents to unlawfully gain employment. Where identified, any individual will be terminated immediately," Eric Trump told the Washington Post in an email.

Anibal Romero is representing the workers who were fired from the New York and New Jersey clubs. He told the news outlet that Trump's businesses have had "a pattern and practice of hiring undocumented immigrants, not only in New Jersey, but also in New York."

"We are demanding a full and thorough investigation from federal authorities," Romero said.

The president's hard-line stance on immigration and asylum led to a partial government shutdown over an impasse with Congress on his demand for a border wall along Mexico. Trump signed a bill to reopen the government Friday for three weeks so that Congress and the president can resume negotiations on border security.

Anything else?

Trump also built his 2016 campaign partly on protecting American jobs.

"On immigration policy, 'America First' means protecting the jobs, wages and security of American workers, whether first or 10th generation," Trump said in 2016. "No matter who you are, we're going to protect your job because, let me tell you, our jobs are being stripped from our country like we're babies."