Former Trump Models: We Were Told to Lie About Immigration Status

Despite building his presidential campaign on fears of foreign labor stealing Americans’ jobs, Donald Trump’s modeling agency allegedly forced foreign models to work illegally in the United States, often under “sweatshop”-like conditions. According to a Mother Jones report, at least three non-citizen Trump models were employed by the agency without the proper work visas—two of whom said they were encouraged by Trump Model Management to purposely deceive Customs officials about why they were visiting the United States and to lie about their intended place of stay. 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. “It is like modern-day slavery” Blais added.