Melania’s Parents Might've Struggled to Get Citizenship Had Trump’s Immigration Plan Existed Then

The parents of the former First Lady Melania Trump are/were (Amalija passed away earlier this year in January) legal citizens of the United States. However, if the Trump administration's immigration law had existed back then, they would have faced an elongated struggle to attain the same. According to the National Post, immigration experts argued that Viktor and Amalija Knavs relied on a family reunification process— the process former President Donald Trump derided as "chain migration."

A New York-based family lawyer of Melania's family, Michael Wildes, shared, "I can confirm that Mrs. Trump’s parents are both lawfully admitted to the United States as permanent residents. The family, as they are not part of the administration, has asked that their privacy be respected so I will not comment further on this matter." It is not known when the Knavses first moved to the US but reports by the Washington Post suggest that Viktor was listed in public records as living in Mar-a-Lago— Donald's lavish residence in Florida. 

Legal residents are generally expected to spend five years in the United States to obtain citizenship. Matthew Kolken, a partner at a New York immigration law firm, said that there were only two ways for Donald’s in-laws to gain green cards. One, through sponsorship by their daughter or the second, through an employer. The latter is unlikely, he opined. Attesting to it, David Leopold, an immigration lawyer and a past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association also asserted that Melania's sponsorship of her parents can not be ruled out. "That would be the logical way to do it, the preferred way to do it, and possibly the only way to do it under the facts that I know," Leopold said. 

The news caused furor back in 2020 when Trump laid out his plan to scrap a few immigration laws during the election season for his second tenure in the Oval Office. Trump, criticizing the immigration laws of the States, had stated, "Under the current broken system, a single immigrant can bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives." 

The statement also brought attention to Melania's citizenship as the public questioned how and when she came to the States and acquired the green card. Wildes, the family lawyer revealed that she first came to the United States from Slovenia in 1996 for modeling work. On her first visit, she was on a visitor’s visa and then later a work permit allowed her to live longer and earn a wage. In 2000, he revealed that the former First Lady sponsored herself for a green card basing her “extraordinary ability” as a professional model with several assignments— a category generally reserved for candidates like Nobel Laureates.