Melania Trump sparks fresh deportation debate as people spot major issue with her US visa

The visa that permitted the First Lady residence in the United States has been called into question this week, as her husband Donald Trump continues putting his controversial deportation mission into place.

Within the last week alone, the right-wing President has threatened to 'deport' both the Ugandan-born mayoral candidate of New York and South African ex-pal Elon Musk, and unveiled plans for a new migrant centre in Florida nicknamed 'Alligator Alcatraz'.

Trump's hotly-debated bid to limit birthright citizenship was also somewhat backed by the US Supreme Court this week, which ruled to restrict lower courts from issuing nationwide injunctions blocking the policy that will affect millions of families of immigrant families.

The moves all form part of the Republican's mission to halt 'all illegal entry into the country' and deport millions of 'illegal aliens'.

Melania visited a migrant detention centre in Arizona earlier this week (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Seemingly in full support of her husband's aims, 55-year-old Melania this week visited an intake and detention facility for undocumented immigrants in Tucson, Arizona this week, where she commended the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in charge.

The visit has since raised questions from social media critics, a number of whom conducted some research of their own into the visa that Slovenian-born Melania first obtained to move from the Balkans to the States.

In doing so, they discovered that, for a brief period of time in the mid-late 1990s, the mother-of-one worked in America illegally, not having obtained the correct requirements for paid employment.

Melania moved from Europe to the US in August 1996 on a B‑1/B‑2 visitor visa, which does not allow tourists to work in exchange for payment. It wasn't until two months later that she was able to obtain a H‑1B work visa (a skilled-worker visa for models), which permitted her paid employment in America.

Melania worked illegally as a paid model in the 90s (David Lefranc/Kipa/Sygma via Getty Images)

According to an Associated Press investigation, however, between this period, Melania did receive paid work, having earned a staggering $20,056 between August and October for modelling for a number of clients, including Camel cigarettes.

Despite the First Lady later adjusting her legal status even further, by receiving an H‑1B visa, a green card, and becoming a US citizen in 2006 - she violated the country's immigration laws for a total of seven weeks.

Pointing out the alleged hypocrisy, one critic pointed out online this week: "Melania Trump broke immigration law when she first came to the US in 1996 by entering the country on a tourist visa and then illegally working as a professional model.

"Today she publicly thanked ICE for rounding immigrants in Tucson."

Another demanded in response: "Why hasn’t she been deported!!!"

A third emphasised: "She worked under a visitor visa and that's illegal. Why others have to go back while she gets a pass."

A number of critics have pointed out the inconsistency (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

"Melania Trump came to the USA in 1996 on a tourist visa," another X (formerly Twitter) user wrote: "She broke the law by working as a model while on a tourist visa. She overstayed her visa. Donald Trump pulled some strings so that she was able to stay in our country."

As such, some left-leaners have been wondering whether Trump's aggressive new deportation policies could be inflicted upon his wife.

"Melanie should be deported," one Reddit user hit out.

"And so should Musk," another agreed. They both became citizens based upon false information."

A third wrote: "How do we turn them into ICE?"