Donald Trump's No Good, Very Bad Week continued this morning when Politico published an exhaustive report on whether or not his wife, Melania, was actually an illegal immigrant when she first came to the United States. The conclusion? That the potential future First Lady may well have come to work Stateside as a model under a tourist visa—something that could have constituted "visa fraud," according to an immigration law expert, and could even call her current citizenship into question.

Both Melania Trump and her husband have always contended that she entered the country legally, and most reports indicate she used what's called an H-1B work visa. But Politico's report found a number of instances where her own statements make that unlikely. In interviews with Harper's Bazaar and MSNBC's Morning Joe, Trump repeatedly said she had to travel back to her home country of Slovenia "every few months" to renew her U.S. visa.

However, as immigration law experts told Politico:

"An H-1B visa can be valid for three years and can be extended up to six years—sometimes longer—and would not require renewals in Europe every few months. If, as she has said, Trump came to New York in 1996 and obtained a green card in 2001, she likely would not have had to return to Europe even once to renew an H-1B."

That Trump continually had to return to her home country to renew her visa indicates it was more likely a B-1 Temporary Business Visitor or a B-2 Tourist Visa, "which typically last only up to six months and do not permit employment." According to Andrew Greenfield, an immigration law expert consulted by Politico, entering the country on either of those with the intention of working could constitute "visa fraud." Another immigration lawyer said that if Trump was indeed using a B-1 visa, she may well have had to lie to border officials about why she was entering the country in order to avoid being sent back to Slovenia.

To make matters worse, visa fraud can call into question subsequent green card and citizenship applications, "thus raising questions about Melania Trump's legal status, even today, despite her marriage to a U.S. citizen."

Spencer Platt Getty Images

All this might seem a bit harsh on Trump—after all, she's not running for president. But the issue is dragged into relevance by the campaign her husband has run. Donald Trump has been perhaps the biggest illegal immigration hardliner in modern history over the last year, repeatedly characterizing people who enter the country without proper documentation as violent criminals threatening the very fabric of our society. (The Trump campaign and Trump Organization's response to Politico was limited to a statement from Hope Hicks: "Melania followed all applicable laws and is now a proud citizen of the United States.") But Melania Trump is, in fact, a representative example of immigrants to America, legal and not, who are less likely to commit violent crime than native-born citizens and often become productive members of society.

Unfortunately, Trump's rhetoric has thrown his wife under the bus. Politico also questioned whether the timeline she has given for her arrival is accurate, and cited reports from CBS News and GQ that "Trump falsely claimed to have obtained a college degree in Slovenia." Moreover, even if Trump—then Melania Knauss—used a legal H-1B work visa, it would run contrary to her husband's rhetoric in this campaign. He has pledged to "end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first."

Sometimes, it's not that Donald Trump does not conform to his own rhetoric or follow the rules he would impose on others. It's that he's so damn obvious about it.

You can find the full report at Politico.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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