FAMILY TIES

Melania Trump’s Parents Get U.S. Citizenship Using ‘Chain Migration’

The pair had been living in the U.S. on green cards sponsored by Melania Trump.

Lawyer for Melania Trump’s parents Michael Wildes announced Thursday that the couple, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, have become U.S. citizens, according to CNN. “It went well and they are very grateful and appreciative of this wonderful day for their family,” the attorney said in a statement. CNN reports that since February, the pair had been living in the United States on green cards sponsored by First Lady Melania Trump, which allowed them to stay indefinitely. The cards resulted from the so-called “chain-migration” program, one of the many avenues for legal immigration that Trump is trying to dismantle. Wildes told The New York Times that they used chain migration to become citizens, calling the term a “a dirtier word” for the process. Before living in the United States, the Associated Press reports, Viktor was a car dealer and Amalija worked in a textile factory in Sevnica, Slovenia. Both are now retired, CNN added, noting that they travel frequently with the first family to Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster, New Jersey.