Trump in-laws are given US citizenship

DONALD Trump’s in-laws have become US citizens by taking advantage of a family reunification scheme that the president has vehemently denounced.

Melania Trump’s Slovenian-born parents Viktor and Amalija Knavs underwent a naturalisation ceremony in New York on Thursday. Asked if they had obtained citizenship under a programme derisively branded ‘chain migration’ by the president, their lawyer Michael Wildes replied: ‘I suppose.’

Mr Trump has previously criticised the process where relatives are allowed to enter a country or become naturalised there because a relative is already a legal resident. Writing on Twitter in November, he said: ‘CHAIN MIGRATION must end now! Some people come in, and they bring their whole family with them, who can be truly evil. NOT ACCEPTABLE!’

The First Lady, 48, sponsored her parents’ application, Mr Wildes said. Mr Knavs, a former car salesman who at 73 is just one year older than his son-inlaw, and his wife, 71, who worked in a textile factory, are retired and spend much of the year in the US.