Foreign models say they worked illegally through Trump’s agency: report

Foreign models came to the United States and worked illegally through the modeling agency owned by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, according to a new report.

{mosads}Three foreign models told Mother Jones that they came to the U.S. and worked with Trump Model Management on tourist visas and not on a special visa that would allow them to work legally.

Rachel Blais, one of the models, told Mother Jones that she began working for Trump Model Management, the New York-based agency, in March 2004. According to financial documents and a letter from an immigration attorney cited in the report, the Canadian did not secure a work visa until six months later. In those months, she appeared as a model on episodes of Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice.”

Two other models, who are identified only by pseudonyms in the report, said they never received work visas through the billionaire businessman’s agency; one said she worked in New York for three months for Trump’s agency in 2009.

“I was pretty on edge most of the time I was there,” she said.

The models also told Mother Jones that Trump’s agency suggested they lie to officials about their reasons for being in the U.S.

“If they ask you any questions, you’re just here for meetings,” one model said an agency representative told her.

The report cited immigration experts who explained that foreign nationals who worked in the U.S., even if they were not being paid for their work, would still be doing so illegally.

“If the U.S. company is benefiting from that person, that’s work,” Anastasia Tonello, global head of the US immigration team at Laura Devine Attorneys in New York, told Mother Jones.

“That U.S. company shouldn’t be making money off you,” Tonello added.