http://www.usatoday.com/story/...ented-work/93321114/
AP: Melania Trump was an undocumented working model in '96
Melania Trump, the wife of the Republican nominee Donald Trump, was paid for 10 modeling jobs in the United States in 1996 before obtaining the necessary documents to legally work in the country, The Associated Press reported Friday.
The report, which AP says is based on accounting ledgers, contracts and other related documents, comes one day after Melania Trump delivered her first speech in the campaign since the Republican National Convention. In the speech, she addressed her journey to becoming a U.S. citizen and how, "as a young entrepreneur, I wanted to follow my dream to a place where freedom and opportunity were in abundance."
Melania Trump arrived in the U.S. from Slovenia on Aug. 27, 1996, on a B1/B2 visitor visa and earned $20,056 for 10 modeling jobs before she obtained her H-1B work visa on Oct. 18, 1996, according to AP.
"The documents examined by the AP indicate that the modeling assignments would have been outside the bounds of her visa," AP reports.
She received her green card in March 2001 and became a citizen in 2006 after marrying Donald Trump in 2005.
Politico raised questions about Melania Trump's immigration story in August after The New York Post ran racy photos of the former model the paper said were taken in the U.S. in 1995. Politico pointed out that would have been before she became a citizen and the Trump campaign responded by releasing a letter from an attorney that outlined her immigration process.
"I am pleased to enclose a letter from my immigration attorney which states that, with 100% certainty, I correctly went through the legal process when arriving in the USA," Melania Trump tweeted at the time, with an image of the letter from Michael J. Wildes, the lawyer, attached.
Politico ended up issuing a correction on its story because it turned out the photos were taken in 1997, not 1995. But, in refuting that report, Wildes provided the dates of Melania Trump's arrival and when she obtained her work visa. AP then focused its investigation on the weeks between those two dates.
Donald Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a cornerstone of his presidential campaign and he wants to expand the use of the government's E-verify system to determine if employees are authorized to work in the U.S.