Rubio Campaign Press Release - Fact Check: Donald Trump Used Illegal Immigrants to Build Trump Tower

The Facts:

"Trump Tower Was Built on Undocumented Immigrants' Backs" (The Daily Beast, 7/8/15)

Trump was sued by a construction workers union for using 200 illegal immigrants from Poland instead of Americans to build Trump Tower.

"The 200 demolition workers—nicknamed the Polish Brigade because of their home country—worked 12-hour shifts, seven days a week with no overtime to knock down the old Bonwit Teller building and make room for Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. According to testimony in a protracted civil suit in federal court, the laborers were paid $5 an hour or less when they were paid at all. Some went unpaid after the contractor had financial troubles. A few never received even the paltry sum that was owed them for their dirty and hazardous efforts preceding the construction of Trump's monument to his own wealth." (The Daily Beast, 7/8/15)

Federal Judge: "They were undocumented and worked 'off the books.'"

"'They were undocumented and worked "off the books,"' Manhattan federal Judge Charles Stewart said of the workers after they became the subject of a 1983 lawsuit. 'No records were kept, no Social Security or other taxes were withheld.'" (The Daily Beast, 7/8/15)

Trump used illegal immigrants to avoid paying overtime.

"Mr. Diduck charged that Mr. Trump, who was desperate to meet both the deadlines for the project and for his complex financing requirements, overlooked the use of the undocumented workers, who put in 12-hour days, 7 days a week and in some cases even slept at the site." (The New York Times, 4/27/91)

Federal judge ruled that Trump employee overseeing project was well aware of the use of illegal immigrants.

"Mr. Trump was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, along with the Trump-Equitable Fifth Avenue Company, a partnership he formed with the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, which was also named. William Kaszycki, a contractor who supplied the Polish workers, and his company, Kaszycki and Sons Contractors, were also named. A 16-day trial took place last summer in which Mr. Trump testified that he did not know that undocumented workers were on the job and that Kaszycki and Sons did all the hiring. But in his ruling, Judge Stewart wrote that the Trump employee overseeing the demolition, Thomas Macari, was well aware of their existence." (The New York Times, 4/27/91)