ETrump’s first wife, Ivana Zelnichkova, was a native of the Czech Republic. In 1971, she married Alfred Winklmaya, who has been described as a platonic friend. But her marriage got her Austrian citizenship and allowed her to leave the Czech Republic to pursue her career as a skier. Early on she learned the ins and outs of international immigration maneuvers. The couple was quietly divorce two years later after she immigrated to the United States by way of Canada. She married Trump in 1977, which I assume was her vehicle to American citizenship.
Trump’s third and present wife, Melania Trump nee Melanija Knavs, was born in Slovenia. Arriving in the US in 1996 on a visitor’s visa, she apparently decided to stay – which is not exactly cricket when you swear that you are coming as a visitor. Apparently finding life in the USA pretty good, she petitioned for and received five extensions of a H-1B visa which allows a non-citizen to work. In 2000, while dating Trump and working as a model, she applied for and received an EB-1 visa – known as the Einstein visa.
This visa has very strict requirements and was designed for applicants with extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics. These visas are granted to persons who have been recipients of prizes such as the Pulitzer, an Oscar, or Olympians along with evidence showing that they will continue to work in their area of expertise. Notable recipients include musician Justin Bieber, actor Benedict Cumberbatch and John Lennon.
Melania’s lawyers won’t discuss the details of her claim to the status of some unique skills that entitled her to EB-1 visa. But it makes you wonder if modeling falls under any of these categories, especially considering the famous or infamous picture of her on a bear skin rug in the buff. She was dating Donal at the time.
By obtaining the visa, the future Mrs. Trump was able to obtain a green card and eventual citizenship. She was then able to bring her parents into the country, through the process known as chain migration which allows green card holders and naturalized citizens to bring in their immediate family ahead of other applicants, a process that candidate Trump as railed against. Her parents have now become citizens.
Since Barack Obama first came announced his candidacy for president, Trump has been a leader of the so called “birther” movement that questioned Obama’s place of birth. Even after his birth certificate was disclosed, proving that Obama was born in Hawaii and not Kenya, Trump first refused to admit and now grudgingly accepts the fact that Obama is a natural born citizen.
If elected, Trump plans to tighten border security, commence mass deportations and move to end citizenship by birth. Engrained in the 14th Amendment, birthright citizenship provides that any person born in the United States, no matter what the immigration status of their parents, can claim American citizenship. In addition, Americans will be subjected to the process seen in old World War II movies, where the Gestapo could arbitrarily stop a person and demand to “show me your papers.” That has never been the law in the United States, although Florida just passed a law allowing for such random searches of anyone that police suspect is not a citizen, which will likely result it lots of Black and brown people being stopped.
There is no question that America has an immigration problem, particularly at the Southern border. Those seeking asylum must wait years for a hearing. Thousands wait at the southern border, endangering their lives and those of their children attempting to cross the Rio Grande River, despite the blockade installed at several crossing points by the State of Texas. The history of America’s immigration laws is not pretty. For most of our history preference was giving to to northern Europeans and at the same time making it more difficult and sometimes impossible for Asians, Africans and persons from Latin America to gain entry.
While immigrants from the southern border are literally dumped on the doorsteps of northern cities by Texas Governor Gregg Abbott, Congress sits on their hands spending more time worrying about Hunter Biden. All the while American taxpayers’ foot the bill to care for the immigrants who for the most part cannot work legally in the US. Florida has even passed a law that if you hire an illegal alien, you can be charged with a criminal offense.
In the 19th century, many southern states had laws that required anyone attempting to register to vote to show proof that their grandfather was registered to vote. Since Blacks attempting to vote were former slaves, this provision made them ineligible because their grandfathers could not vote. I have jokingly said that if reenacted, the grandfather clause would be a good law. Just about every white person I know admits that at least one of their grandparents was foreign born, thereby making them ineligible to vote under the grandfather clause.
The vast majority of Black Americans, on the other hand, can trace their American roots back multiple generations, many by using records of the purchase and sale of slaves. Enforcement of a grandfather clause would take millions of white voters off the voter lists – many of them Trump supporters – and greatly enhance the power of Black voters!
Obviously, this is an absurd suggestion, but it’s just about as absurd as Trump’s suggestion that immigrants are poisoning the blood of America. We are a nation of immigrants. If Trump’s draft dodging grandfather had been forced to stay in Germany, someone else would have been the 45th president and not Donald Trump.
When you look at the crowds of admirers in the cult of Trumpism, I often wonder if they even hear what he is saying. Are they so tone deaf that they can’t see the hypocrisy of a man who would keep immigrants out but has no problem with his own immigrant roots and the two immigrant women he married. But that’s what happens when you drink the Kool-Aid.
Requirements for an EB-1 “Einstein Visa” can be found here.
C. Ellen Connally is a retired judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court. From 2010 to 2014 she served as the President of the Cuyahoga County Council. An avid reader and student of American history, she is a former member of the Board of the Ohio History Connection, and past president of the Cleveland Civil War Round Table, and is currently vice president of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission. She holds degrees from BGSU, CSU and is all but dissertation for a PhD from the University of Akron.