Undocumented woman who cleans Trump’s toilet wants asylum

BEDMINSTER — A woman who admitted to coming into this country illegally before landing a job at President Donald Trump's golf club is now seeking asylum, saying her life would be in danger if she was deported.

Victorina Morales, a Bound Brook resident, was expected to have a hearing at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' asylum office in Lyndhurst on Monday, according to a report on NJ.com. Her attorney told the website that Morales would be in danger if she was sent back to Guatemala, in part because of all the attention she has gotten since going public.

"There is no doubt that Morales would face grave danger in Guatemala, where her visibility as the subject of a major news story would put her at even greater risk," Anibal Romero said in a statement. "We are confident in her asylum claim and will establish that she is entitled to protection under U.S. law."

Morales gained national attention after the New York Times wrote about her work at the club, which included making Trump's bed, cleaning his toilet and dusting trophies at Trump National Bedminster. In the story, Morales said she was hired by the club in 2013, having provided phony documents after coming into the country illegally in 1999. She also told the paper that two supervisors knew the truth about her immigration status, but did not report her, and she was still on the payroll last week.

Since the story in the Times first came out, Morales has shared more stories about her time working for Trump, describing what she said were abusive conditions at the club. She told the Associated Press last week that family still in Guatemala has received death threats. She said she has seen other undocumented employees at the club be ridiculed and called names like "donkeys" and "dogs."

"We need to come out and defend ourselves," she told the AP. "I had enough with suffering."

During her time working at the club, Morales said, supervisors were not only verbally abusive to undocumented employees, but also physically abusive. She told the AP that a supervisor pushed her against a wall three times and told her to stop speaking Spanish. She also told the news outlet that a supervisor said she would be deported if she complained.

During the campaign and since taking office almost two years ago, Trump has made cracking down on undocumented immigrants a pillar of his platform.

The Trump Organization did not comment about Morales' hiring at the Bedminster club to NJ.com, rather saying that "If any employees submitted false documentation in an attempt to circumvent the law, they will be terminated immediately."

Her attorney did not respond to phone calls or emails seeking comment on her status on Monday.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report

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