As Donald Trump continues his sweeping crackdown on immigration, Melania Trump’s still-mysterious immigration journey became both a talking point and a punchline at a contentious House Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington Wednesday.
During a debate on how to restore “integrity” in the immigration process, U.S. Rep Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said it was “a joke” that her Republican colleagues were not concerned about the “lack of integrity when it comes to the president’s family’s visas,” the Daily Beast reported.
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That’s when Crockett revived longstanding questions over how the Slovenian-born Melania Trump obtained obtained an EB1 visa, the so-called “Einstein visa,” in 2001. The first lady was granted the visa just five years after she moved to the United States to become a model and three years after she began dating Trump, then a rich and powerful New York City real estate developer. She eventually became a U.S. citizen in 2006 after marrying Trump and having a baby with him.
FILE – Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, speaks at the Democratic National Convention, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)
But as Crockett pointed out, Melania Trump never attained the supermodel status of “Tyra Banks, Cindy Crawford or Naomi Campbell,” which presumably could have made her worthy of an Einstein visa.
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A few moments earlier, Crockett lambasted her Republican colleagues for being OK with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “snatching lawful visa holders off the streets and throwing them into unmarked vans.” She also said: “Integrity is not revoking visas based on social media posts that hurt somebody’s little feelings, because kids decided they wanted to go after Trump or this administration. We have a thing called free speech in this country.”
In discussing Melania Trump’s EB1 visa, Crockett said: “Let me tell you how you receive an Einstein visa. You’re supposed to have some sort of significant achievement, like being awarded a Nobel Peace Prize or a Pulitzer; being an Olympic medalist; or having other sustained extraordinary abilities and success in sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics. Last time I checked the first lady had none of those accolades under her belt.”
According to Crockett, Melania Trump’s modeling career didn’t translate into a “significant achievement” or show “extraordinary abilities.”
“Melania, the first lady, a model — and when I say model I’m not talking about Tyra Banks, Cindy Crawford or Naomi Campbell-level — applied for and was given an EB1 visa,” Crockett said. “It doesn’t take an Einstein to see that the math ain’t mathin’ here.”
According to a 2020 biography of Melania Trump by Washington Post journalist Mary Jordan, the former Melania Knauss moved to New York City in 1996 and first modeled under a series of H-1B visas.
NEW YORK – OCTOBER 9: Donald Trump and Melania Knauss attend the 2002 USO of Metropolitan New York Gold Medal Awards at The Plaza Hotel October 9, 2002 in New York City. (Photo by Matthew Peyton/Getty Images)
The view that Melania Trump never reached the top echelon of “editorial” modeling was echoed in Jordan’s book, “The Art of Her Deal.” Jordan noted that Melania’s relationship with Trump helped her book some higher-profile modeling gigs. But according to Jordan and the Daily Beast, her biggest gigs were limited to an ad for Camel cigarettes that put her on a billboard in Times Square, a photo in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition and a nude photo shoot for GQ.
Meanwhile, the year that Melania Trump received her Einstein visa, issued through the “elite” EB-1 program, such documents were handed out to only 1% of non-U.S. citizens, Jordan said.
When Trump first ran for president in 2016, his campaign promised to hold a press conference that would set the record straight about Melania Trump’s path to lawful permanent residency and citizenship. The promise was made after nude photos of her were splashed across the cover and inside pages of the New York Post. During that time, reports also showed that Melania Trump had earned up to $20,000 for 10 modeling gigs before she received a work visa in 1996.
“There are a lot of questions about how she procured entry into the United States,” immigration attorney David Leopold, a past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said in Jordan’s book.
Not surprisingly, Crockett’s “disgraceful” critique of Melania Trump’s modeling accomplishments upset fans of the first lady, according to the New York Post. On X, people blasted Crockett for being “jealous” or even brought up Melania Trump’s questionable claim that she can speak five languages, which Jordan’s book also refuted.
But there were a few more jokes at Melania Trump’s expense at Wednesday’s House hearing. The Cato Institute’s Alex Nowrasteh, testifying at the hearing, interjected to “defend Melania real quick,” according to the Daily Beast.
Nowrasteh, the vice president of economic and social policy at the institute, which has been critical of ICE’s “unprecedented crackdown on peaceful people,” quipped that the Melania Trump’s great accomplishment was marrying the president.
Nowrasteh said “not everybody could marry Donald Trump, and I think that’s quite an achievement, so I think she deserves credit for that. Nobody up here could have done it!”
Crockett clapped back, “You sure are right, I couldn’t have done it.”