The waiters and waitresses would earn an hourly wage of $12.68 with the possibility of making $19.02 an hour in overtime pay. The cooks would make $13.31 an hour, with a possible overtime wage of $19.97 an hour.<doc-sep>There’s "help wanted" at The Trump Organization’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. But the company is looking outside of the United States to fill 61 open positions at what the President often refers to as the “Winter White House.” Documents posted by the Department of Labor on Thursday show that the club asked permission from the government to hire 40 new servers and 21 new cooks under the H-2B visa program, which allows companies to employ foreign workers or legal immigrants on a temporary basis if the business can’t fill the spots with qualified Americans. The server positions will pay a minimum of $12.68 per hour, and cooks will make a minimum of $13.31 an hour. Request for both types of workers lists a start date of Oct. 1, 2018 and a termination date of May 31, 2019. The company's decision over hiring more foreign workers comes amid a broader political debate raging over the Trump administration's immigration policies. Last year, the Department of Homeland Security and, soon after, Trump properties reincreased the cap on H-2B visasquested approval to hire dozens of workers. While this practice seemingly contradicts the Trump administration’s America first economic policies, President Donald Trump previously told ABC News that finding homegrown labor can be “very, very hard” during Florida’s busy fall and winter months. “It’s called Palm Beach social season,” then-candidate Trump told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos during a 2016 interview in Colorado Springs. “And what we do is we sometimes have to bring people in.” Trump also said that while he doesn’t directly manage the hiring at his properties, similar businesses in Palm Beach follow the same practices. “And you know why they’re doing that? You know why they’re doing that? They can’t get people George.” “I have many other places where I don’t have to do that because you have a normal season,” he later added in the same interview with Stephanopoulos. Similar records posted by the Department of Labor earlier this year indicate that Trump properties in Charlottesville, Va. and Westchester County, N.Y. have also requested to hire dozens of foreign workers under the H-2B visa program. Since Trump declared his candidacy in 2015, Trump owned or branded businesses have sought to employ more than 400 foreign guest workers under the H-2B visa, with the Mar-a-Lago Club alone accounting for at least 264 of those workers. The Trump Organization did not respond to ABC’s request for comment.<doc-sep>President Trump Donald TrumpTrump lashes out after grand jury seated for New York criminal probe Schumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida has asked the federal government for permission to hire 40 foreign workers, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Labor Department. The Palm Beach resort wants to hire waiters and waitresses who would be employed using H-2B visas, which businesses typically obtain if they can establish that there are not enough American workers able or willing to fill the temporary positions. ADVERTISEMENT Trump defended the controversial practice during a GOP primary debate in 2016. “It’s very, very hard to get people,” he said at the time. “Other hotels do the exact same thing.” Trump told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" the same year that "getting help in Palm Beach during the season is almost impossible." If the request is approved by the Labor Department, Trump's private resort will be allowed to employ the workers for $12.68 per hour from October 2018 to May 2019. Last year, Mar-a-Lago was granted permission to hire 70 foreign workers to serve as maids, cooks and servers during the 2017-2018 tourist season.<doc-sep>
President Donald Trump often conveys a strong preference for American workers. But as a request from the president's Mar-a-Lago golf club to hire 61 people from abroad demonstrates, putting that preference into practice can prove difficult. The president's Florida resort — which he has promoted as the "Southern White House" — filed requests with the Department of Labor to obtain 61 visas for foreign workers, according to Job Order records posted Thursday by the department's Employment and Training Administration. The Mar-a-Lago club asked for 40 H-2B visas for servers and another 21 for cooks. The H-2B visa is for "temporary non-agricultural workers." According to the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the employer filing for H-2B visas must demonstrate that there are "not enough U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available" and that the foreign workers "will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers." The resort made a similar request earlier this year, filing for 70 visas for restaurant staff as well as housekeepers in January. According to this week's filing, the cooks would be paid at least $13.31 an hour and the servers would be paid at least $12.68 an hour. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump was asked about the club's practice of hiring foreign workers for the busiest months of the year during one of the Republican primary debates. "It's a few months, five months at the most. People don't want a short-term job," Trump explained. "It's very, very hard to get people. But other hotels do the exact same thing." Mar-a-Lago:An insider's view of Trump's Florida estate More:Trump’s Mar-a-Lago visits cost Coast Guard nearly $20M