The Daily - Undocumented and Working for Trump

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. A couple of days ago, we visited her in her home with Miriam Jordan, the New York Times reporter who first broke the story. Guest: Victorina Morales, a former housekeeper at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., and Miriam Jordan, who covers immigration for The Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Duration: 26m
Broadcast on: 14 Dec 2018
Audio Format: other

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

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Okay, I want to know more about your experience before you came to the United States and where you came from. Maybe you can describe the place where you are from. 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 it was an electricity people used a flashlight to guide the way. That's what you turned this water bottle into, a flashlight. Vicky said that she comes from a very poor background, extremely humble. So at what age did you decide to leave Guatemala? And what exactly motivated you to leave? She was 35 years old when she came to the United States. It was 1999. She wanted to give her children a better life and she'd heard that you could make good money in America. So her husband came ahead and she followed.

It took her a month and a half to Journey from Guatemala all the way to the border in California. She came coming on, coming on, coming on, the walking, walking, walking the whole way through Mexico. She said that they only hopped in a car when they were chased on occasion to escape.

On arrival at the border, she spent those last two weeks waiting for the right moment to cross. 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. She said that she felt this great sense of fulfillment and satisfaction of finally being in this country. She said, thank God. Thank God. Thank God. I'm here. And this might seem like a small matter, but how did you get on a plane at that point or do anything without documents or did you get documents? In Los Angeles, the gentleman who helped her get on

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