Trump admits 'it's possible' a few illegal immigrants could 'slip through the cracks' and work at his sprawling company, but insists 'we do better paperwork than almost anybody'

  • Billionaire Donald Trump is most outspoken GOP candidate on illegal immigration, angering Democrats and alienating some fellow Republicans
  • Claims Mexico is 'sending' its worst criminals across the US border
  • Insists news organizations have begun to apologize to him for stories about his claims that 'rapists' are entering America from the south
  • But hedges on whether everyone employed by his corporate empire is legally allowed to work in the United States

Billionaire presidential candidate Donald Trump admitted on Tuesday that there's a chance his sprawling real estate empire might be employing a few illegal immigrants – a surprising concession given the Republican's high-energy pronouncements about American jobs and Mexican immigrants.

With a pianist tinkling a Bach prelude in a nearby salon, he told DailyMail.com during a brief press conference that there's no perfect system for screening out job applicants who aren't legally allowed to work in the United States. 

'I have a case where we have a building under construction, where we go through it so thoroughly,' Trump said at his newly opened Albemarle Estate bed & breakfast at the Trump Winery near Charlottesville, Virginia.

'Can one out of thousands and thousands of people, or two or three, slip through the cracks? I guess it's possible.' 

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WHO KNOWS? Donald Trump conceded that his company, the Trump Organization, night employ a few illegal immigrants because no system for screening them out is perfect

WHO KNOWS? Donald Trump conceded that his company, the Trump Organization, night employ a few illegal immigrants because no system for screening them out is perfect

SHHHH!  Trump (center) different from his son Eric (left), who told DailyMail.com that he could guarantee everyone in the company had legitimate employment papers

SHHHH!  Trump (center) different from his son Eric (left), who told DailyMail.com that he could guarantee everyone in the company had legitimate employment papers

ARE WE DONE? Trupm held a brief press conference in the library of his new Albemarle Estate inn property in rural Virginia

ARE WE DONE? Trupm held a brief press conference in the library of his new Albemarle Estate inn property in rural Virginia

Trump, though, insisted that 'we do very, very good surveillance and we have very strong paperwork.'

That take was a notch weaker than what Trump's son Eric offered just minutes before in a private interview.

'We hire legal employees,' the younger Trump said flatly. 'It's simple. There are certain documents people need and we hire legal people.'

Asked if he could guarantee that every worker who picked grapes on the winery's nearby rolling hills was legally permitted to hold a job, he didn't hesitate.

'There's no question,' a serious Eric Trump declared. 'We have people who hire people. We obviously check that very carefully.'

His father was more lighthearted about the topic, suggesting that some of the news organizations represented in the oak-paneled library – the day's makeshift press briefing room – had questionable people on their employee rosters. 

'I will guarantee the Daily Mail – I'll guarantee the New York Post – there's some people that maybe shouldn't be working there,' the Republican pol said. 'They slip through the cracks!'

But in Trumpworld, he said, 'we are very, very careful with that. It's a very important thing for me.'

PARADISE: Albemarle is a 45-room Georgian mansion that Trump's son and his team restored from a dump to a Trump

PARADISE: Albemarle is a 45-room Georgian mansion that Trump's son and his team restored from a dump to a Trump

ROLLING HILLS: The 26,000 square foot mansion sits on 1,300 acres near Monticello and the University of Virginia

ROLLING HILLS: The 26,000 square foot mansion sits on 1,300 acres near Monticello and the University of Virginia

THE LIBRARY: Trump held court for about 20 minutes on Tuesday as local and national reporters peppered him with questions

THE LIBRARY: Trump held court for about 20 minutes on Tuesday as local and national reporters peppered him with questions

LUXURY: A pianist played Bach and Mozart in a nearby salon while Trump toured the inn with invited guests and then held a sit-down press conference

LUXURY: A pianist played Bach and Mozart in a nearby salon while Trump toured the inn with invited guests and then held a sit-down press conference

The Donald – 'DJT' or 'Mr. Trump' to his most senior aides – generated a storm of controversy for saying when he launched his presidential bid that 'rapists' and other hardened criminals were streaming across the U.S. southern border with Mexico, and proclaiming that he could right America's immigration ship.

In the weeks that followed, several high-profile criminal cases involving illegal immigrants – including some who returned to the U.S. after being deported multiple times – have put Trump into an I-told-you-so mode.

'What happened is over the last period of four days, five days, everyone now is saying I'm right,' he said Tuesday.

'People in your profession are actually apologizing to me,' he told the gathered reporters. 

Kate Steinle, a 32-year-old woman killed in San Francisco last week by an five-time illegal immigrant deportee, 'should be alive,' he added.

'In my opinion,' Trump charged, her killer Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez 'was pushed through by the governemnt of Mexico because they didn't want to take care of him.'

'They send people over that they don't want,' he said, 'people from their prisons. You remember Fidel Castro, from Cuba? You remember what he did? He opened up his prisons, he sent everybody over.'

'Mexico is doing the same thing in a highly sophisticated manner.' 

SERIOUS: Trump said he's taking extra precautions to ensure everyone he hires is 'legal,' but that might not be enough

SERIOUS: Trump said he's taking extra precautions to ensure everyone he hires is 'legal,' but that might not be enough

SLEEP ON A CLOUD: The Serta bedding in Trump's inn rooms is turned down every night and topped with chocolates from a local confectioner

SLEEP ON A CLOUD: The Serta bedding in Trump's inn rooms is turned down every night and topped with chocolates from a local confectioner

BRANDING: Everything in the rooms, including shaving kits, water bottles and chocolates, bears the Trump name or his signature 'T'

BRANDING: Everything in the rooms, including shaving kits, water bottles and chocolates, bears the Trump name or his signature 'T'

DIP: Albemarle Estate includes an outdoor pool and a pool house

DIP: Albemarle Estate includes an outdoor pool and a pool house

GEORGIAN: The inn's decor has been completely restored

GEORGIAN: The inn's decor has been completely restored

Trump was in Albemarle County, Virginia on Tuesday to cut the ribbon of an inn on his winery property near Charlottesville, a site he claimed had become the biggest winery on the East Coast of the United States.

He arrived on a helicopter, emblazoned with his family brand in giant letters, which set down gently on a lawn near a vineyard. A Cadillac SUV drove him the length of a 2-minute walk to the estate's front door.  

Trump held up his $6.5 million purchase of the inn – the asking price was originally $100 million – as an example of his negotiating skills.

In order to drive the price down, he told a high-society crowd gathered outside, he bought the land around it – and then the roads leading the the property.

With those assets locked up, Trump said, hardly anyone big against him when the then-dilapidated estate house went under the hammer at auction.

'Sometimes it helps to have a terrible reputation,' he quipped. 

The renovated 45-room Georgian mansion property now boasts guest rooms and has a nearby chapel availabel for weddings. 

Room rates, according to a hotel staffer, range from $499 to $1,200 per night. 

 

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