Montreal model says she worked for Trump-owned agency in NYC without a visa

A New York City modelling agency owned by U.S.presidential candidate Donald Trump regularly employed models without work visas,allegesa Montreal woman who says she worked thereillegallyin the mid-2000s.

In anarticle in the U.S. magazine Mother Jones,Rachel Blaisand two other models allege theywere recruited byTrump Model Managementand employeddespite the fact they did not have visas for working in the United States.

On Thursday, Blaistold CBC Montreal'sDaybreak:"I was not the only one working there without a visa."

"The majority of us that were foreign borndidn't have a visa because we had just started and were at the beginning of our careers."

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Blais said the agency would only secure visas for models who brought in enough money.

CBC has contacted Trump Models in New York City aboutBlais'sallegations, but has yet to receive a response.

The allegations comeas Trump ratchets up his hardline rhetoric against the millions of immigrants living illegally in the United States, saying there would be no amnesty for them if he wins.

Hardline measures against illegal immigration are a central theme of Trump's run for the White House, and has found traction among his core base of white males.

Questionable business practices

Blais said what Trump preaches and how Trump Model Managementoperated do not match up.

"What he says and how he practises business are two different things and quite contradictory," she said.

The model said she was once made to work for free at an event attended by Trump.

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Blais said other practices atTrump Model Management includedhousing teenagemodels in an overpriced, overcrowded apartmentand deductingunexplained fees from theirearnings.

"When you asked accounting for a reasoning behind these fees what they mean and why it's so high you're taught very quickly that you shouldn't ask any questions," she said.

The model said shealso faced extreme pressure from the agency to have liposuction when she was only 18.

"They were weighing me every week because I was not a size zero," she said.

Blais said such practices are not exclusive to Trump Models and arecommon across the modelling industry, a fact she's been speaking out against since late 2011.

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