First lady’s immigration attorney criticizes Trump
First lady Melania Trump’s immigration attorney is criticizing the president’s hostility toward “chain migration”— a process by whichU.S. citizens or permanent residents can sponsor family members to come to the country — and said the attacks are “unconscionable.”
“This is a tradition that happens in all rank and all files of life, whether you’re president of the United States — and this is the first naturalized first lady that we have — or people who eventually navigate through the waters into America,” Michael Wildes told CNN on Friday.
Wildes represented the first lady’s parents, who became naturalized citizens Thursday. Viktor and Amalija Knavs left their native Slovenia and had been living in the United States as permanent residents.
Citing legal experts, The Washington Post reported in February that the Knavses very likely came to the United States through family reunification, with their daughter sponsoring their green-card applications. Wildes confirmed as much during the interview withCNN’s ErinBurnett on “OutFront,” saying the first lady hired him “with the intentions of bringing her family here like everybody elsewould.”
It’s the same process of legal immigration that President Donald Trump has derided as “chain migration” and which he has called to end.
Trump has claimed that chain migration has resulted in national security threats, even though studies have shown that immigrants, both legal and undocumented, are less likely to commit crimes than nativeAmericans. In several speeches and interviews over the past months, Trump has called chain migration “terrible” and a “disaster.” He has also claimed, falsely as The Post’s Fact Checker found, that the process allowed a terror suspect to bring two dozen relatives to theU.S.
“You bring one person in, you end up with 32 people,” he said at one news conference.
“You come in and now you can bring your family and then you can bring your mother and your father, you can bring your grandmother,” he said at another.
Responding to the president’s comments, Wildes denounced claims that chain migration allows people to simply bring in any relative to theUnited States.
“Let me take off one hat as the first lady’s immigration lawyer and her family andputonmyownpersonal hat. It’s unconscionable to scare people into believing that. You cannot bring nephews, you cannot bring nieces or uncles, you can’t bring 32 people here, and some of the quotas are backed up for 10 or 15 years from particular countries,” Wildes said, adding that the proper term is “family reunification.”
Wildes, a Democrat who is running for a third term as mayor of Englewood, N.J., has previously criticized the president’s policies on immigration. Among his other clients have been British singer Boy George and French chef Jean-Georges.
Under U.S. law, citizens can sponsor their spouses, children, parents and siblings so that they can come to the United States. Rules are stricter for permanent residents or green-card holders, who can sponsor only a spouse or unmarried children. The process often takes years and often has a lengthy waiting list. Nearly 4 million applicants were on the waiting list as of last November.
Thepresident inDecember called for ending chain migration and the visa lottery system, after UzbekistanSayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov allegedly killed eight people and injuredadozenothers inan attack in Manhattan. The lottery system, which allowed Saipov to come to the U.S., is a process in which up to 50,000 immigrant visas aredrawnannually from a random selection of applications from countries with low rates of immigration to the country.
“We’re going to end both of them, the lottery system and chain migration. Fast. Congress must get involved immediately, and I can tell you we have tremendous support. They will be ended,” Trump said at a news conference.