As Donald Trump prepares to give a major speech on immigration – one of the key issues since the launch of his campaign – former models have accused the NY businessman of running a “crooked” modeling agency and skirting United States regulations to bring them into the country to work.
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Speaking to supporters in Iowa on Saturday, Trump said he would crack down on visitors to the United States who overstay their visas and declared that when any American citizen “loses their job to an illegal immigrant, the rights of that American citizen have been violated”. In an interview, Canadian-born model Rachel Blais said that Trump’s agency is “the most crooked agency I’ve ever worked for, and I’ve worked for quite a few”, and several others recalled cramped, overcrowded housing conditions and the company’s insistence on charging high rent for the model dormitories. Financial and immigration records included in a recent lawsuit filed by a fourth former Trump model show that she, too, worked for Trump’s agency in the United States without a proper visa.
“[Trump] doesn’t want to let anyone into the USA anymore”, one model, identified by the pseudonym “Kate”, told Mother Jones.
“If they ask you any questions, you’re just here for meetings”, one model said an agency representative told her.
Trump Model Management’s use of H-1B visas is ironic, considering the candidate’s hardline stance on the program. Documents included in a recent lawsuit filed by a fourth former Trump model reveal that she also worked for Trump’s agency in the U.S. without a proper visa, the magazine reports. “This is a system where they actually end up making money on the back of these foreign workers”, Blais said. But without work visas, they lived in constant fear of getting caught.
Donald Trump is supposed to be tough on immigration, but he owns a company that breaks the nation’s immigration laws. “I was there illegally”, she said.
To Trump’s credit, Susan Scafidi, founder of the Fashion Law Institute in NY, told Mother Jones sidestepping the immigration rules was “very common” in the industry. “The apartment was like a sweatshop”.
“He doesn’t like the face of a Mexican or a Muslim”, stated one of the models, identified by the pseudonym ‘Kate, ‘ “but because these [models] are attractive girls, it’s okay?”
Donald Trump will give a much-anticipated speech on illegal immigration Wednesday after a week of a flip-flops on his signature issue.
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The report cited immigration experts who explained that foreign nationals who worked in the US, even if they were not being paid for their work, would still be doing so illegally. So are some of the other unsavory stories about Trump Model Management, including charging exorbitant rates for dormitory-like rooms that eat up almost all of the models’ earnings.
