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

In an article in the U.S. magazine Mother Jones, Rachel Blais and two other models allege they were recruited by Trump Model Management and employed despite the fact they did not have visas for working in the United States.

On Thursday, Blais told CBC Montreal's Daybreak: "I was not the only one working there without a visa."

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

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

Montrealer Rachel Blais says she worked illegally for Trump Model Management in New York City in the mid-2000s. (Meghan Brosnan/RachelBlais.com)

CBC has contacted Trump Models in New York City about Blais's allegations, but has yet to receive a response.

The allegations come as 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 Management operated 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.

Blais said other practices at Trump Model Management included housing teenage models in an overpriced, overcrowded apartment and deducting unexplained fees from their earnings.

"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 she also 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 are common across the modelling industry, a fact she's been speaking out against since late 2011.