Trump’s in-laws get US citizenship
NEW YORK: The Slovenian-born parents of Melania Trump became United States citizens at a naturalisation ceremony here on Thursday, reportedly taking advantage of a family reunification programme President Donald Trump had vehemently denounced.
Trump’s in-laws Viktor and Amalija Knavs took the oath of citizenship, their immigration lawyer Michael Wildes confirmed.
Asked by the New York Times if they had obtained citizenship under a programme derisively branded “chain migration” by Trump, Wildes replied: “I suppose.”
He said chain migration, which allows naturalised US citizens to sponsor close relatives for permanent residency, was a “dirtier” way of characterising what he called “a bedrock of our immigration process when it comes to family reunification”.
Trump has taken a hardline on immigration policy, criticising socalled chain migration.
Trump had said such a system steals jobs from Americans and threatened national security, calling for a merit-based system that gave preference to more educated, English-speaking professionals.
Writing on Twitter in November, Trump made his views on the system clear.
“CHAIN MIGRATION must end now! Some people come in, and they bring their whole family with them, who can be truly evil. NOT ACCEPTABLE!”
He frequently cited the example of Sayfullo Saipov, a naturalised immigrant from Uzbekistan who drove a rented truck down a busy bike path here in October, killing eight people and injuring 12, to illustrate why the family reunification programme must be ended.