Two of Donald Trump's top megadonors routinely brought reportedly undocumented workers to the U.S. from Mexico to work at their warehouses in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
Uline, the office and shipping supply company controlled by billionaire Republican donors Liz and Dick Uihlein, staffed its facilities with Mexican workers using tourist visa and B1 visas meant for employees entering the country temporarily to receive professional training, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter, but have them instead perform normal work duties, reported The Guardian.
“It does not allow them to obtain wages for labor in the United States, it absolutely does not,” said Marc Christopher, a Wisconsin-based immigration lawyer. “If they’re doing warehouse work, especially second or third shift, that’s not a close call ... absolutely 100 percent not allowed."
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The sources said Uline launched the so-called "shuttle support" program about three years ago, even as Dick Uihlein’s Restoration PAC paid for pro-Trump TV advertisements attacking Kamala Harris for supposedly allowing an immigrant “invasion," and sources added that Liz Uihlein and other top executives were aware of the practice.
“They were not able to staff their warehouses, especially in Pennsylvania," said one source with close knowledge of the matter, the report says. "So they looked at Mexico for workforce."
Sources weren't sure why the company employed the Mexico-based workers, but they suspect it could be related to Uline's strict and complicated hiring practices, which include hair follicle drug testing, and immigration lawyer Ira Kurzban said the program was “clearly illegal.”
“This is the whole false premise of Trump," Kurzban said. "I mean, the idea that these people are taking jobs away from Americans – they’re not. We need millions of people to do this kind of work. We’ve always looked away even though we know most people who fulfill these kinds of jobs are not allowed to be working in the U.S.”
Immigrant and labor rights activist Christine Neumann-Ortiz suspects the shuttle program was undermining wages for all of Uline's workers.
Christine Neumann-Ortiz, director of the Wisconsin immigrant and labor rights group Voces de la Frontera, said she believed the program was clearly undermining wages for all workers at the company.
“It is a way for Uline to undercut wages for U.S. workers, while also not paying justly the Mexican workers for what their co-workers are earning here for the exact same work, while also having to sacrifice time away from their families and communities,” said Neumann-Ortiz, director of the Wisconsin immigrant and labor rights group Voces de la Frontera.
