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 her early paid modeling work in the U.S. 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 authorized to work. He has noted that federal law prohibits illegally paying immigrants.

Melania Trump, who received a green card in March 2001 and became a U.S. 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 U.S. from Slovenia on Aug. 27, 1996, on a B1/B2 visitor visa and then obtained an H-1B work visa on Oct. 18, 1996.

The documents obtained by the AP show she was compensated for the modeling jobs that she worked between Sept. 10 and Oct. 15 of that year, altogether worth $20,056. During this time, her visa allowed her generally to be in the U.S. and look for work, but not perform paid work. The documents consist of detailed accounting ledgers, contracts and related papers.

It is highly unlikely the discovery will affect the citizenship status of Melania Trump. 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 naturalization.


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