# Melania's parents are now U.S. citizens **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 9, 2018, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361 "2018-08-09T19:34:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nayna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ebca7d/32.png) [@Nayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nayna)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361/1 "2018-08-09T19:34:39Z")
Link: [https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/melania-trumps-parents-sworn-us-citizens-57123484](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/melania-trumps-parents-sworn-us-citizens-57123484) From the Trump administration’s perspective, what’s the upshot of this? Two more voters? A big F you to the haters? Why would they do something that will obviously be met with a lot of media attention and backlash, for people who would have lived in the U.S. happily and quietly for the rest of their lives, anyway? ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361/2 "2018-08-09T19:52:08Z")
> [@Nayna](#): > > Link: [https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/melania-trumps-parents-sworn-us-citizens-57123484](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/melania-trumps-parents-sworn-us-citizens-57123484) > > From the Trump administration’s perspective, what’s the upshot of this? Two more voters? A big F you to the haters? Why would they do something that will obviously be met with a lot of media attention and backlash, for people who would have lived in the U.S. happily and quietly for the rest of their lives, anyway? Is there any indication that President Trump or any high-level administration officials had any involvement in this? Is there any evidence “they” did something for the Knavs? As far as I can tell from media reporting, the Knavs spent an hour in May with an immigration attorney at a federal building that houses U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service offices. Now, they’ve been sworn in as U.S. citizens. That seems to indicate they went through normal channels on their own initiative to obtain U.S. citizenship. You’d have to ask them why they chose to wait until this last May to start the process. It’s possible they were pressured by members of the Trump administration who also greased the wheels for them, but it’s also possible this was a purely private decision by two private individuals - now private U.S. citizens (and congratulations to them) - that the Trump administration had nothing to do with. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361/3 "2018-08-09T19:56:40Z")
> [@gdave](#): > > As far as I can tell from media reporting, the Knavs spent an hour in May with an immigration attorney at a federal building that houses U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service offices. Now, they’ve been sworn in as U.S. citizens. That seems to indicate they went through normal channels on their own initiative to obtain U.S. citizenship. I thought it usually took like a year to get citizenship all straightened out, even if an applicant had their stuff in order. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361/4 "2018-08-09T20:11:49Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > I thought it usually took like a year to get citizenship all straightened out, even if an applicant had their stuff in order. So, maybe there was undue influence. Or maybe the May meeting was a follow-up interview, not the initial application. It’s certainly not impossible that there’s something untoward going on here, but there’s absolutely no evidence that I’m aware of that this is the case. The Knavs certainly have a much deeper and more personal connection to the U.S. now than they did in October 2016. It just doesn’t seem even vaguely suspicious to me that they applied for and were granted U.S. citizenship after their daughter became the First Lady of the U.S. There may be a story here, if someone in the White House exercised undue influence on the Knavs’ behalf. More likely, There is a story here, if they applied for citizenship under the family reunification program based on Melania’s citizenship, after her husband and their son-in-law has very publicly and repeatedly blasted that program. But there’s no indication I’ve seen that anyone in the Trump administration\* even cares about this matter, much less is thinking of an “upshot”. \*Other than Donald Trump himself, of course, but there’s no evidence he cares about this beyond the personal connection to his parents-in-law. Actually, there’s no available evidence he even cares on the personal level, much less that he’s looking for a political “upshot.” ---
**Author:** ![Nayna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ebca7d/32.png) [@Nayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nayna)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361/5 "2018-08-09T20:12:19Z")
I mean to post this in Elections. Sure, there are a lot of questions, now going back to how the Knavs got green cards in the first place. That’s my point. I’m not even sure I think the Trump admin, or that Trump and Melania personally, “did” anything for the Knavs. But I think they surely could have said, “No way, bad timing, horrible optics, no benefit at all to doing it.” It’s curious to me that they did NOT do that. ---
**Author:** ![Sinaptics](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Sinaptics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinaptics)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361/6 "2018-08-09T20:12:39Z")
> [@gdave](#): > > Is there any indication that President Trump or any high-level administration officials had any involvement in this? Is there any evidence “they” did something for the Knavs? > > As far as I can tell from media reporting, the Knavs spent an hour in May with an immigration attorney at a federal building that houses U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service offices. Now, they’ve been sworn in as U.S. citizens. That seems to indicate they went through normal channels on their own initiative to obtain U.S. citizenship. > > You’d have to ask them why they chose to wait until this last May to start the process. It’s possible they were pressured by members of the Trump administration who also greased the wheels for them, but it’s also possible this was a purely private decision by two private individuals - now private U.S. citizens (and congratulations to them) - that the Trump administration had nothing to do with. Given that it was kept hush-hush and done on an off day in a different building, it looks at least some special consideration was given. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361/7 "2018-08-09T20:12:44Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > I thought it usually took like a year to get citizenship all straightened out, even if an applicant had their stuff in order. My wife is a naturalized US citizen. Going to USCIS offices with an attorney isn’t the first step in the process; filling out forms and mailing them in is the first part, and you can do that at home, with or without an attorney. At some point, you go to a USCIS office for [a naturalization interview,](https://citizenpath.com/naturalization-interview/) during which they assess your knowledge of US history and mastery of English. If everything’s in order, you’re declared eligible for naturalization and your ceremony gets scheduled. All of which means the Knavs may have started the process a year ago; quite possibly their May office visit was for the naturalization interview. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361/8 "2018-08-09T20:16:30Z")
> [@Sinaptics](#): > > Given that it was kept hush-hush and done on an off day in a different building, it looks at least some special consideration was given. Sure, and they were escorted by DHS police, which is unusual, to say the least, for a naturalization ceremony. Given that they are the parents-in-law of the sitting U.S. President, though, those seem like perfectly reasonable security precautions. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361/9 "2018-08-09T20:26:49Z")
> [@Nayna](#): > > I mean to post this in Elections. > > Sure, there are a lot of questions, now going back to how the Knavs got green cards in the first place. That’s my point. > > I’m not even sure I think the Trump admin, or that Trump and Melania personally, “did” anything for the Knavs. But I think they surely could have said, “No way, bad timing, horrible optics, no benefit at all to doing it.” It’s curious to me that they did NOT do that. Sure, they could have said that, but, I mean, the Trump administration in general, and President Trump himself, have not exactly been overly concerned with optics with pretty much any policy, behavior, statement, or tweet. I don’t see any reason to expect they’d be concerned with the optics of Melania’s parents privately pursuing a perfectly legal and reasonable course of action. And who knows, maybe Melania and President Trump and a whole parade of senior officials and advisers said exactly that to the Knavs, and the Knavs just ignored them. Again, it’s possible this was simply a purely private decision by the Knavs themselves. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361/10 "2018-08-09T20:42:55Z")
> [@gdave](#): > > Is there any indication that President Trump or any high-level administration officials had any involvement in this? Is there any evidence “they” did something for the Knavs? No, nor would there be, due to privacy issues that documentation would not be available unless they wanted it to be. That’s why Snopes calls this"[Unproven](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/melania-trump-parents-chain-migration-meme/)": > [@](#): > > Here are Melania’s Parents. Viktor and Amalija Knavs. They live in the United States Permanently now because of Chain Migration after Melania’s visa Expired & she stayed here illegally and married Donnie for Citizenship. None of them have a degree or a job. ---
**Author:** ![Nayna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ebca7d/32.png) [@Nayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nayna)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361/11 "2018-08-09T20:58:30Z")
While I disagree that Trump is unconcerned with optics, I do agree that he always becomes concerned after it becomes obvious to even him that the optics are terrible. So I’ll just wait for his inevitable tweet telling us all that the Knavs’ situation has nothing to do with chain migration and their story is totally different from the other immigration stories all over the news every day. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361/12 "2018-08-09T21:01:24Z")
Optics? “See? We are not against immigration. We are against illegal immigration.” ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361/13 "2018-08-09T21:02:30Z")
No doubt their application was given more than normal scrutiny and probably was fast tracked. They appear to have gotten some special protocol for the oath taking. Nothing suggests that it was improper or unlawful. They are the parents of the current First Lady of the US. Of course the civil servants involved would go the extra mile go ensure there was no screw up independently of what the Don might have done. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361/14 "2018-08-09T21:51:18Z")
> [@gdave](#): > > As far as I can tell from media reporting, the Knavs spent an hour in May with an immigration attorney at a federal building that houses U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service offices… > > You’d have to ask them why they chose to wait until this last May to start the process. Why are you assuming that they started the process in May? Apparently they’ve been in the US and had Green Cards for a while. [ > [@Washington Post](#): > > As of December 2007, Viktor Knavs was using Mar-a-Lago as his address and had a Florida-based Mercedes-Benz registered in his name, according to public records. > > … > > Several years ago, their attorneys contacted the office of Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), now the Democratic minority leader, for help checking on the status of their petition for a green card with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, according to a person familiar with the outreach. > > Such efforts are not unusual, and some congressional staffs, including Schumer’s, have a dedicated immigration case worker to handle such requests. Schumer’s office declined to comment. ]([https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/melania-trumps-parents-are-legal-permanent-residents-raising-questions-about-whether-they-relied-on-chain-migration/2018/02/21/3b573df8-1687-11e8-8b08-027a6ccb38eb\_story.html](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/melania-trumps-parents-are-legal-permanent-residents-raising-questions-about-whether-they-relied-on-chain-migration/2018/02/21/3b573df8-1687-11e8-8b08-027a6ccb38eb_story.html)) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361/15 "2018-08-09T22:00:29Z")
Isn’t the whole process 5 years, minimum, from start to finish? I would assume they started quite awhile ago. Before Trump was even a candidate for president. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361/16 "2018-08-09T22:02:19Z")
Two more immigrants. There goes the neighborhood. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361/17 "2018-08-09T22:25:48Z")
This is one of those things I can’t even begin to be bothered by, even if it were true that they were fast tracked because they were the President’s in-laws. In the scale of grift and corruption shown to us by this administration and its supporters, this seems rather… normal. Expected. Quaint, even. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361/18 "2018-08-09T22:36:35Z")
I’m still wondering how Melania got in under the Exeptional (or Einstein) Clause, considering her “modeling career” consisted of a little advertising and catalogue work, plus nudie-cutie shots for GQ. Maybe she’s the Einstein of blow jobs. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361/19 "2018-08-09T22:46:12Z")
Ahem … the Knavs_es_ ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361/20 "2018-08-09T22:50:34Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Why are you assuming that they started the process in May? Apparently they’ve been in the US and had Green Cards for a while. It wasn’t so much an assumption that they started the process in May, as that their apparent visit to an immigration office was the earliest media cite I found on a quick Google search for info on their citizenship applications. From **Machine Elf** ’s post, it seems likely that was actually a naturalization interview, and they started the process much earlier. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melanias-parents-are-now-u-s-citizens/819361.md?page=2)