Donald Trump's modeling agency violates immigration laws, former models say

We’re still waiting for that press conference in which Melania Trump was going to prove that her modeling work in the United States was always done legally and that she, in Donald’s words, has it “so documented.” We’ve been waiting for a while for that proof that the anti-immigrant politician’s immigrant wife followed the laws. But while we wait, Mother Jones offers up a story about some models who definitely worked in the United States without proper work visas … while they were working for Trump Model Management.

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.) [...]

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."

While working for Trump Model Management in New York, the models paid above market rent to sleep in bunk beds in an apartment crowded with other models, many of whom they say were similarly working without documentation. That excessive rent and other fees the models had to pay to the Trump agency meant that they rarely made any money off their work—one said that in three years with Trump Model Management she got a single check for $8,427.35. By contrast:

According to a financial disclosure filed by his campaign in May, Donald Trump earned nearly $2 million from the company, in which he holds an 85 percent stake.

Classy!