Well this is awkward.
After nearly year of basing an entire presidential campaign off the idea that illegal immigrants are the ones that are to blame for a lot of the problems in America there are now reports that Melania Trump may have worked illegally when she first arrived in the US.
Speculation about Donald Trump’s wife’s career past began circulating in August and she tried to quash rumours with a statement that said she has been “at all times in compliance with the immigration laws of this country.”
But in a recent report from AP it’s alleged that when the Republican candidate’s first went to the US from Slovenia on August 27, 1996 she had a B1/B2 visitor visa then later obtained a H-1B work visa on October 18,1996.
Donald Trump and Melania Trump on day one of the Republican National Convention.
AP claims it has unearthed documents from the now-defunct Metropolitan International Management, which used to represent Melania, that prove she was paid for ten modeling jobs between September 10 and October 15, a time she was on her visitor visa and should not have been working.
As per AP:
“The documents obtained by the AP show she was paid for 10 modeling assignments between Sept. 10 and Oct. 15, during a time when her visa allowed her generally to be in the U.S. and look for work but not perform paid work in the country. The documents examined by the AP indicate that the modeling assignments would have been outside the bounds of her visa.”
If the revelations in the article are true it would not really impact Melania’s current immigration status as she’s been a citizen of the US since 2006 and the AP report points out that this breach wouldn’t likely be enough to strip her of her green card:
“The government can seek to revoke the U.S. 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.”
Also if true it would just seem embarrassing for the Trump campaign not to have accounted for this when using Melania’s story as it’s done in the past to advocate for her husband, especially when considering his controversial immigration proposals.
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