Report: Donald Trump, Immigration Stickler, Allegedly Employed Foreign Models Illegally at Agency
Donald Trump, shunner of immigrants and builder of walls, has centered his entire campaign on the idea America needs to ban Muslims and deport undocumented immigrants. But, according to a new report in Mother Jones, the Republican presidential nominee does not seem to take issue with illegal immigrant labor when the workers are attractive women who help make him richer. The report comes weeks after Politico questioned the visa status of Trump's wife, Melania, at the time of her early modeling work in the United States.
Trump has an 85 percent stake in Trump Model Management, which was founded in 1999, Mother Jones reports. Mother Jones interviewed four women who moved to America to work for Trump Model Management. The models were allegedly brought to America without work visas, meaning any work they did for Trump Model Management was illegal:
Canadian-born Rachel Blais spent nearly three years working for Trump Model Management. After first signing with the agency in March 2004, she said, she performed a series of modeling gigs for Trump's company in the United States without a work visa. At Mother Jones's request, Blais provided a detailed financial statement from Trump Model Management and a letter from an immigration lawyer who, in the fall of 2004, eventually secured a visa that would permit her to work legally in the United States. These records show a six-month gap between when she began working in the United States and when she was granted a work visa. Two other former Trump models - who requested anonymity to speak freely about their experiences and who we are giving the pseudonyms Anna and Kate - said the agency never obtained work visas on their behalf, even as they performed modeling assignments in the United States. (They provided photographs from some of these jobs, and Mother Jones confirmed with the photographers or stylists that these shoots occurred in the United States.)
Mother Jones reports a fourth model, Alexia Palmer, also "worked in the United States without a work visa after being recruited by Trump's agency from her native Jamaica."
Some of the models allege they were forced to lie to federal authorities about the nature of their visits to the U.S.:
Two of the former Trump models said Trump's agency encouraged them to deceive customs officials about why they were visiting the United States and told them to lie on customs forms about where they intended to live. Anna said she received a specific instruction from a Trump agency representative: "If they ask you any questions, you're just here for meetings."
"I was pretty on edge most of the time I was there," said Anna, about working for Trump's agency without a work visa in 2009. "I was there illegally," she said. "A sitting duck."
"He doesn't want to let anyone into the U.S. anymore," Kate told Mother Jones. "Meanwhile, behind everyone's back, he's bringing in all of these girls from all over the world, and they're working illegally."
The agency did not respond to Mother Jones for comment. Hope Hicks, the Trump campaign's spokesperson, "declined to answer questions about Trump Model Management's use of foreign labor," and said, "that has nothing to do with me or the campaign."
Read the full report here.
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