Dems ask FBI to look into Trump Org

NEW YORK — A group of House Democrats asked the FBI on Wednesday to launch an investigation into whether President Donald Trump’s company is a “criminal enterprise” after mass firings at two of his golf clubs where longtime workers were only recently discovered to be in the country illegally.

Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., and nine other House members sent a letter to the head of the FBI asking for an investigation into whether the Trump Organization knowingly hired workers without the proper documents, and even helped them procure false ones as some workers have alleged.

The letter says the allegations by workers interviewed in media reports raise “serious questions of criminal activity and numerous violations of employment laws” including conspiracy charges and forced or coerced labor.

“Instead of hiding in the shadows, some of these brave workers have now decided to come forward and detail an elaborate ploy by the Trump Organization to systematically procure cheap immigrant labor and employ undocumented immigrants — despite knowing that the documents they provided were false,” the House members wrote.

The letter also asks that the fired workers be offered protection from deportation as potential witnesses to crimes.

Trump has repeatedly called for cracking down on companies that hire people in the country illegally, saying they should get hit with a “huge financial penalty.”

The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It has previously said it does not tolerate hiring anyone with false papers, and suggested rooting out those with false documents is not easy.

“Our employees are like family but when presented with fake documents, an employer has little choice,” Trump official Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons, said in a statement after 13 workers were fired last month at his club in New York’s Westchester County. “This situation is not unique to Trump Organization — it is one that all companies face.”