Salma Hayek: I Was an Illegal Immigrant

If anyone could charm deportation officers, it would be Salma Hayek. The Oscar-nominated actress has revealed in an interview with V magazine Spain that she was briefly an illegal immigrant in the U.S. while she was a student. “It was for a small period of time, but I still did it.” Hayek, 44, said she moved to Los Angeles in 1991 and her visa expired shortly afterward. While her publicist confirmed that Hayek was in fact an illegal immigrant, he said her status “was cleaned up immediately as Salma went to Mexico and renewed” her visa. Hayek also said she faced discrimination in Hollywood when she arrived in the 1990s, and it was “inconceivable to American directors and producers that a Mexican woman could have a lead role.”