Sanctuary/deportation precedent: Trump knowingly hired illegal aliens, was never prosecuted

Sky Hardesty’s comment on the Feb. 22 Leader story about the City of Port Townsend “sanctuary solutions” read: "Harboring -- Subsection 1324(a)(1)(A)(iii) makes it an offense for any person who -- knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation.

“Encouraging/Inducing -- Subsection 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv) makes it an offense for any person who -- encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law."

As I’m responding here with regard to Donald  Trump, I’ll add to that the subsection of the same law reading: “Conspiracy/Aiding or Abetting -- Subsection 1324(a)(1)(A)(v) expressly makes it an offense to engage in a conspiracy to commit or aid or abet the commission of the foregoing offenses.”

My overall response to Hardestry comment’s a bit cumbersome in length, so I’m posting it here as an extra blog this week, as I proceed past the popular old “don’t ask; don’t tell” philosophy (that worked with the U. S. military in dealng with homosexuals for some 17 years). While this illegal-alien harboring and inducing (and conspiring) by Donald Trump appears to have been willing and flagrant violation of the law, it apparently was never pursued in court as a criminal offense. There was some sort of settlement in the matter of worker payment—but the law itself appears never to have been exercised or satisfied. It appears moot in that regard with the expiration of limitations and the passage of years.

Yet we have old holier-than-thou Donald throwing his weight around with regard to undocumented aliens throughout the entire country.

I look back to an August 2016 edition of Time: “In the summer of 1980, Donald Trump faced a big problem. For six months, undocumented Polish laborers had been clearing the future site of Trump Tower, his signature real estate project on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, where he now lives, maintains his private offices and hosts his presidential campaign.

"The men were putting in 12-hour shifts with inadequate safety equipment at subpar wages that their contractor paid sporadically, if at all. A lawyer for many of the Poles demanded that the workers be paid or else he would serve Trump with a lien on the property. One Polish worker even went to Trump's office to ask him for money in person, according to sworn testimony and a deposition filed under oath in a court case. . . 

“For 36 years, Trump has denied knowingly using undocumented workers to demolish the building that would be replaced with Trump Tower in 1980. After Senator Marco Rubio raised the issue of undocumented Polish workers during a Republican primary debate this year, Trump described himself as removed from the problem. ‘I hire a contractor. The contractor then hires the subcontractor,’ he said. ‘They have people. I don't know. I don't remember, that was so many years ago, 35 years ago.’ 

“But thousands of pages of documents from the case, including reams of testimony and sworn depositions reviewed by TIME, tell a different story. Kept for more than a decade in 13 boxes in a federal judiciary storage unit in Missouri, the documents contain testimony that Trump sought out the Polish workers when he saw them on another job, instigated the creation of the company that paid them and negotiated the hours they would work. The papers contain testimony that Trump repeatedly toured the site where the men were working, directly addressed them about pay problems and even promised to pay them himself, which he eventually did.. . .” http://time.com/4465744/donald-trump-undocumented-workers/

Other easily Googled Internet sites provide such information as "The Polish employees were off-the-books, working 12-hour shifts seven days a week for $4 to $5 an hour, with no overtime. Some workers were never paid what they were owed . . ."

From my brother Fred in Mississippi: “I presently have 5 Hispanics working on my roof (employed by a local roofer). I am not about to check their documentation.  It's hard to find roofers.  After the last severe thunderstorm (wind and hail) they are fully employed.”

.

.