Trump’s Late Mother-In-Law Came To U.S. Under ‘Chain Migration’ Program The Former President Wants To Scrap

Donald Trump‘s late mother-in-law, Amalija Knavs, entered the United States under an immigration program that her son-in-law had scrapped.

On August 6, 2018, Melania Trump‘s Slovenia-born parents, Viktor Knavs and Amalija, were sworn in as U.S. citizens at a ceremony in New York City.

Their attorney, Michael Wildes, confirmed in February 2018 that the couple holds green cards and have been living in America for several years.

Trump criticized family-based immigration laws for a long time, calling such “chain migration” programs harmful to America because they could lead to terrorism and other types of crime.

The news about Melania’s parents also emerged as Trump has campaigned to limit legal immigrants’ access to citizenship and green cards, especially for migrants who benefited from government assistance like health insurance.

Trump adviser Stephen Miller championed the measure, which follows several attempts by the administration to curb illegal immigration by splitting families apart at the border and keeping children in detention facilities.

Melania has been a U.S. citizen since 2006, five years after she became a permanent resident.

She sponsored her mom to come to the U.S. using chain migration as a legal avenue in which U.S. citizens have the right to sponsor their parents for a green card.

Amalija, who died at age 78 in January, had been a legal permanent U.S. resident since March 2010, according to her immigration records.

She then applied for full citizenship in August 2017, seven months after Trump took office.

During her citizenship test in 2018, Amalija reportedly answered enough questions correctly to pass but did not respond to the question: “What is the ‘rule of law?'”

She stated that she was living in Trump Tower in New York City on her application.

In May 2023, Trump, in an X campaign video, stated that if he is reelected in 2024, he would terminate birthright citizenship for children born to immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally. This move would infringe on how the Constitution has historically been interpreted, but the former president mentioned that he wants that changed – and the newly conservative Supreme Court might support him.

In a press release, Trump said that parents would need to be American citizens or legal permanent residents for birthright citizenship to apply.

This policy could have affected Melania and the former president’s son, Barron Trump, if it was enacted at the time. His wife was not a U.S. citizen until 2006 – after his son’s birth date – meaning that his plan, as a result, would not have granted his son a guaranteed path to citizenship since only one of his parents had been born in the U.S.