Chinese woman arrested for sneaking into Mar-A-Lago

Part of the Mar-A-Lago resort.

A Chinese national lied her way into Mar-A-Lago resort but was arrested by the Secret Service Saturday before she could get near Donald Trump who was there.

The woman, Yujing Zhang, has been charged with making false statements and illegally entering a restricted area.

She was found to be carrying two Republic of China passports, four cell phones, an external hard drive and a thumbdrive containing malware.

Zhang claimed to be meeting with Li "Cindy" Yang, the former massage spa owner accused of selling access to Trump and his family to Chinese business people. 

Zhang briefly entered private resort after telling a security guards that she was there to visit the pool, according to the criminal complaint. Due to translation problems, she was allowed on the grounds.

At the reception building, she told another story, saying that she was there to attend a gathering, the "United Nations Chinese American Association."

The receptionist did not find any such meeting scheduled. That's when she alerted Secret Service. and Zhang underwent further questioning. She told the agents agents that a "Chinese friend" had told her to travel to Mar-a-Lago and speak with a member of Trump's family about U.S.-Chinese economic relations.

According to The Miami Herald , Zhang was trying to gain access to an event advertised on Chinese-language social media by Li “Cindy” Yang, the South Florida massage parlor entrepreneur who also ran a business selling access to President Donald Trump and his family.

The Secret Service issued a statement Tuesday evening, saying Mar-a-Lago — not the Secret Service — determines who is invited or welcome at the resort. They also noted that Zhang, spoke English with ease.

For lying to federal agents and entering a restricted area, Zhang faces five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The second charge carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

Zhang's detention hearing is scheduled for April 8.

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Trump can't find enough Americans to work at Mar-A-Lago

Donald Trump's favorite getaway is Mar-A-Lago resort in Palm Beach Florida.

YOU REALLY HAVE TO WONDER -- while the Trump administration aggressively pushes apparent anti-immigrant agenda, it seems OK for Mar-a-Lago, to hire more waiters, kitchen staff and housekeepers from overseas.

Donald Trump's policies cracking down on asylum seekers, kicking out immigrants in the U.S. who want to serve in the U.S. military, separating children from their parents at the border, making it more difficult to extend visas or get a green card are conveniently forgotten when the rich and hoighty-toighty need to be pampered.

Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida, has asked the government for permission to hire 78 temporary foreign workers; 40 waiters and waitresses, 21 cooks and 17 housekeepers. waiters and waitresses, according to records posted by the Department of Labor on Thursday.

Since Trump launched his presidential campaign in June 2015, businesses owned by him or bearing his name have sought to hire more than 480 foreign guest workers, including more than 240 for Mar-a-Lago.

The request for 21 cooks and 40 front-of-house employees, for an employment window of October 2018 to May 2019, is under the controversial H-2 visa for temporary workers, which allows employers to fill non-agricultural roles for which there “are not enough U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available to do the temporary work.”

The request comes as the Trump administration’s policies regarding foreigners seeking to enter the country are facing sharp criticism. Trump has also been a strong proponent of US companies hiring fewer foreign workers and more American employees.

“The postings show that—despite Trump’s insistence that immigration is holding down wages and crowding out native-born American workers—his club believes it cannot find any Americans in South Florida who are qualified to hold two very common restaurant-industry jobs,” the Washington Post reports. 

In the case of the elitist resort that Trump calls his Winter White House, he defends the use of temporary foreign workers by saying that it is “very, very hard to get help” during the Florida tourist season. In other words, Mar-A-Lago couldn't find any American workers who could cook or wait tables.

Florida's unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2018 is about 4%, However, for Latinos, unemployment is 4.2% and for African Americans, 7.3%

Apparently, this hiring practice of ignoring American workers is a long-held practice at the exclusive seaside resort.

A 2016 report by the New York Times found the Trump Organization “pursued more than 500 visas for foreign workers at Mar-a-Lago since 2010,” while “only 17” U.S. residents were hired during that same time period. Those 17 hired employees represented 6% of the total local applicants. 

The low pay might be one of the reasons Trump can't find workers. Trump proposes paying servers $12.68 an hour, a 6.7 percent increase from last year’s $11.88. And Mar-a-Lago will pay housekeepers $10.68, up 3.4 percent from last year’s $10.33.

However, cooks will take a slight pay cut, to $13.31 from last year’s $13.34.

Considering Trump's push for immigration reform and cries of "America First," and his racist rants about Mexican immigrants' "effects on job seekers ... disastrous," and his argument that "a nation that does not serve its own citiens is not a nation" Mar-A-Lago's hiring practices seem particularly hypocritical.

Yet, Trump's supporters continue to believe their hero when he rants about immigrants taking jobs away from Americans. Their silence is is as loud as their cheers during one of Trump's rallies.

The cries of "America First," should really be "Trump First."

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