Undocumented Worker Says Trump Resort Shielded Her From Secret Service

Managers at the golf club and at Trump International did not respond to requests for comment on Ms. Torres’s account. A Secret Service spokeswoman, Cathy L. Milhoan, said she could not discuss what measures the agency took to vet employees at the golf club. “The U.S. Secret Service does not comment on our protective operations to include the administration of our name check program,” she said in a statement.

Ms. Torres said she believes the undocumented workers she identified to management also had their names removed from the list given to the Secret Service, but all of them, she said, remained on staff at the resort.

At least one other undocumented employee at the resort, Victorina Morales, a native of Guatemala who had been illegally in the United States since 1999, said she was given a Secret Service pin to wear when the president was in residence at the club. Secret Service officials said the pin did not signify that she had passed any security clearance.

Ms. Torres, 43, said she was hired to work at the resort in early 2015 using a falsified Social Security number and Permanent Resident Card. She had informed a manager during her job interview that both were phony, she said, and the documents were photocopied for club files when she started working there.

After a few months working as a housekeeper, Ms. Torres said she complained to management about what she felt was abusive treatment by the housekeeping supervisor and was moved to the kitchen, where she started as a dishwasher. She said she worked her way up to assistant to the chef, earning $14.50 an hour.

Among other tasks, Ms. Torres noted that she made sandwiches for Secret Service agents when they began visiting the property. She also prepared food for Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump had praised her work and tipped her when she was in housekeeping, Ms. Torres recalled. But she and other former employees who have spoken with The Times said they grew increasingly uncomfortable with Mr. Trump’s derogatory comments about immigrants during his campaign. “When he won the election, fear took over me,” Ms. Torres said. “I felt I was in the lion’s den. I had to leave.”

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