WASHINGTON — An immigrant in the U.S. illegally who worked at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster has been invited to President Donald Trump's State of the Union address.

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-12th, said in a statement that her guest will be Victorina Morales, who was born in Guatemala and lives in Bound Brook.

Morales gained national attention after the New York Times wrote about her work at the club, which included making President Donald 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.

In a statement, Coleman accused President Trump of "demonizing" immigrants as "the scourge of the country and the root of our nation’s crime and insecurity" during the 35-day-long federal government shutdown, but relying on them to work at his properties.

As a CEO, Coleman said Trump ran a company "that has relied extensively on the hard work of undocumented immigrants like my constituent Victorina to keep his resorts clean and his putting greens trimmed. Donald Trump wants to build silly walls to stop the same immigrants that he’s made a career and a fortune from exploiting."

Morales told the Associated Press in December that her 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."

"I hope that in his State of the Union address, Donald Trump will finally acknowledge the real face of immigrants in this country — women and children fleeing violence, law-abiding, tax-paying people who would do almost anything to be Americans. And if he can’t, I’ve invited Victorina so that he may look her in her eyes to tell his lies to a familiar face," Coleman said.

The Trump Organization said Wednesday that it will use the E-Verify electronic system at all its properties to check employees' documentation.

 

Trump has repeatedly cast millions of immigrants in the country illegally as taking jobs from American citizens. He turned over day-to-day management of his business to sons Eric and Donald Jr. when he took office.

In an interview Wednesday with The Daily Caller website, Trump said some of his State of the Union guests will be "border-related."

He said his guests will include "people who have suffered very badly because we didn't do what we should've done in a very dangerous part of our country."

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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