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She said she was instructed by Trump Model Management not to bring her portfolio of photos on these trips, lest it be discovered in a customs search and threaten her cover story of tourism.

“It was normal,” she said in an interview. “We all know it, and we’re being told this is the way you have to do it.”

She said the agency deducted a 20-per-cent fee, the rent, expenses, and even taxes, which for an American worker would be paid to the government.

“When you’re an illegal worker, and they take that money, where does that money go?” she said. “Straight into their pocket.”

She eventually did well enough for the agency that it arranged for an immigration lawyer to obtain a three-year visa, after months of employing her illegally. Others were simply sent home, she said.

“I’m very happy things worked out for you and I look forward to hearing from your soon,” reads the letter from Eric M. Bland.

“I never met this man,” Blais said.

She also appeared as a model on Trump’s reality television show The Apprentice, for which she was not paid.

“It’s work even if you’re not paid as a model to do it,” she said. She also recalled meeting Trump at a promotional event for his now-defunct vodka brand.

An article in Mother Jones describes her illegal work for Trump, as well as that of two other models, whose identities are not given. It also quotes a Trump spokesperson, Hope Hicks, saying the allegations have “nothing to do with me or the campaign,” and notes that Trump Model Management did not respond to many requests for comment.