Melania did modelling jobs illegally without work visa
washington — Melania Trump was paid for 10 modeling jobs in the United States that occurred before she had legal permission to work in the country, according to documents from 20 years ago provided to The Associated Press.
The details of Mrs Trump’s early paid modelling work in the US emerged in the final days of a bitter presidential campaign in which her husband, Donald Trump, has taken a hard line on immigration laws and those who violate them. Trump has proposed broader use of the government’s E-verify system allowing employers to check whether job applicants are authorised to work. He has noted that federal law prohibits illegally paying immigrants.
Mrs Trump, who received a green card in March 2001 and became a US citizen in 2006, has always maintained that she arrived in the country legally and never violated the terms of her immigration status. During the presidential campaign, she has cited her story to defend her husband’s hard line on immigration.
The wife of the GOP presidential nominee, who sometimes worked as a model under just her first name, has said through an attorney that she first came to the US from Slovenia on August 27, 1996, on a B1/B2 visitor visa and then obtained an H-1B work visa on October 18, 1996.
The documents obtained by the AP show she was compensated for the modeling jobs that she worked between September 10 and October 15 of that year, altogether worth $20,056.
During this time, her visa allowed her generally to be in the US and look for work, but not perform paid work.
The documents consist of detailed accounting ledgers, contracts and related papers.
It is highly unlikely that the discovery will affect the citizenship status of Mrs Trump. The government can seek to revoke the US citizenship of immigrants after the fact in cases when it determines a person willfully misrepresented or concealed facts relevant to his naturalisation. But the government effectively does this in only the most egregious cases, such as instances involving terrorism or war crimes.
The disclosures about the payments come as Mrs Trump takes on a more substantial role advocating for her husband’s candidacy. She made her first speech in months on Thursday.
“As a young entrepreneur, I wanted to follow my dream to a place where freedom and opportunity were in abundance. So of course, I came here,” she said. “Living and working in America was a true blessing, but I wanted something more. I wanted to be an American.”
The documents obtained by the AP included a management agreement signed by Mrs Trump from Metropolitan International Management that covered parts of 1996 and 1997. —