'As soon as possible': Trump Organization to increase checks after reports about undocumented employees

Christal Hayes | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – After a number of reports revealed that Trump Organization employed undocumented immigrants, the company said it is expanding its system for checking the legal status of new employees.

The Washington Post reported that President Donald Trump's company plans to start using E-Verify, a system that checks federal databases to determine whether a person is eligible to work in the U.S.

"We are instituting E-Verify on all of our properties as soon as possible," Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons who helps run the company, told the Washington Post. "We’re starting with the golf properties, and we are going to be doing all of them."

Eric Trump's comments followed a number of reports of illegal immigrants working at Trump's properties, including his hotels and golf clubs.

Over the weekend, the Post reported that dozens of undocumented employees had been fired due to their legal status in the country. The firings came amid a fierce debate over illegal immigrants and a wall along the southern U.S. border, Trump's signature campaign promise.

The impasse over a wall left the government shutdown for 35 days, the longest in U.S. history.

Throughout his campaign and presidency, Trump has highlighted the negatives of hiring undocumented workers. He has said using E-Verify would help halt the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S., even asking for more money in the 2019 budget to expand the program across the nation.

The Post noted that Eric Trump's comments were the first time the company or the Trump family has addressed the legal status of some of its workers after a New York Times story in December revealed several women had worked at Trump's golf club in Bedminster, N.J. for years, one even tended the president's room and made his bed.

The president, in an interview with the Post on Tuesday, used the undocumented workers to highlight a change needed in the U.S. immigration system but did not address why illegal immigrants were hired at his businesses.

"This is why we have to fix our immigration system," Trump told the Post. "I am a big proponent for allowing people to come into our country, but they have to come in legally."

Eric Trump told the Washington Post that the company uses E-Verify at some of its businesses, including in states where it's required, and a third-party service at some of the other properties to conduct background checks.

But the president's son said the workers offered false documents to show they were in the U.S. legally, making it hard for the company to know.

"This situation is not unique to Trump Organization — it is one that all companies face," Eric Trump told the Post. "It demonstrates that our immigration system is severely broken and needs to be fixed immediately."