Melania Trump’s parents didn’t get stopped at the border for their second daughter to be ripped from their arms. They didn’t have to pine for the day that they’d all be reunited; they didn’t have to wonder if she was safe or being fed properly or even if she slept on a bed. They never had to wonder if she was sleeping in a cage—they already know that she is.
That would be the gilded cage of her creation that has led them to this fateful day as Viktor and Amalija Knavs, the creators of Satan’s bride, were granted full-fledged citizenship, Thursday, CNN reports.
“It went well and they are very grateful and appreciative of this wonderful day for their family,” Michael Wildes, their immigration attorney said in a statement to CNN.
The first lady’s office declined CNN’s request for comment, and maybe that’s because no one really knows how Viktor and Amalija Knavs, who are from Slovenia, became green card holding citizens in the first place.
Surely the Trump administration wouldn’t have dared skirted the official immigration process for the parents of Melania, would they?
One Twitter user noted some time ago that Trump’s in-laws may have become citizens through “chain migration” a process the Trump administration hopes to end.
“I can confirm they are green card holders and legal permanent residents of the United States,” Wildes told CNN. What Wildes didn’t say is how they got said green cards, and whether they were sponsored by Melania, which is effectively what the Trump administration considers “chain migration” or family-based migration.
From CNN:
There are only a handful of ways that immigrants to the US can obtain green cards, and the largest share of them each year are given out based on familial connections. A smaller number go to immigrants based on their employment, and other categories include refugees and other special cases. Advocates for restricting legal immigration have pointed to the imbalance in favor of family connections as evidence of the need for reform, calling for a “merit-based” system that would choose immigrants based on need in the US.
The US allows a number of ways for US citizens and legal permanent residents to sponsor family members to come to the US permanently, including categories for parents, adult siblings and adult children, married and unmarried.
So, how is it that Viktor and Amalija Knavs, 73 and 71 years old, respectively, both of whom are retired, able to not only obtain green cards but given full-fledged citizenship when they don’t meet any of the above requirements?
I’ll give you one guess ...