If Trump Model Management actively evaded immigration laws in bringing models to work in the U.S. without work visas, that’s not just an embarrassing political story about a candidate who’s campaigned against immigration. It’s also a legal issue for the modeling agency as a business, and Sen. Barbara Boxer is asking the government to investigate:
"I am extremely concerned by the claims levied against Trump Model Management and ask that you open an investigation into the company's employment practices," Sen. Boxer wrote in a Wednesday letter to León Rodríguez, the director of the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), a part of the Department of Homeland Security.
Boxer wrote that the allegations in Mother Jones's exposé were "disturbing," and called on the agency to "make clear that immigration and labor violations like these will not be tolerated." The letter was also sent to Labor Secretary Tom Perez.
As with so many stories about Donald Trump’s sketchy-to-outright-illegal practices, this story got a tiny fraction of the media attention lavished on “raising questions” about the Clinton Foundation doing legal things. But pressing young women to evade immigration laws while you pit them against one another to see who has the highest earning potential and is worth going to the trouble of getting work authorization is the kind of thing the government should care about, even if the guy whose name is on the company isn’t running for president. The fact that Trump is running for president means that in addition, voters should take this as a sign of how he would run the country.