As President Donald Trump and his administration seek American jobs for American workers, Eric Trump’s Virginia winery is applying for permission to bring in more than two dozen foreign workers for this year’s season, multiple media outlets reported.
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Trump Vineyard Estates has applied to bring in 29 workers through a federal H-2A visa program, Fox News reported.
The winery asked for six workers in December, but increased the request by 26 workers last month.
Trump's property is not the only one in the area that has applied for workers. Three vineyards in the Charlottesville, Virginia, area applied this year. Two others have used the visa requests in the past, the Charlottesville Daily Progress reported.
A group that has worked with companies to fill positions said the need for foreign workers is nothing new.
"People these days say there are no workers that will perform seasonal work like agriculture jobs, landscaping, entry level, low skill. I think that's an overstatement. I don't think there are no people to do it, there's just a deficiency of people to do it," Libby Whitley, of másLabor, told The Daily Progress.
The H-2A program was designed for agricultural companies that believe they will have a shortage of American workers and it allows them to bring in foreign workers for temporary and seasonal jobs, The Daily Progress reported.
Whitley, who worked with the Trump Winery, said she expected to be inundated with applications after the first H-2A request.
"Guess how many applicants we had? Thirteen," she told Fox News. "And they were all from places like the Philippines, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria. We did not have one American worker apply."
But the office has received emails from people who are against the employment visa request.
"I qualify every one of those responses and I say, 'Are you interested in the job? If you are, please get in touch with us immediately,'" Whitley told Fox News.
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