First Lady Melania Trump’s parents became U.S. citizens Thursday. In Trump’s America, this feel-good story turned the ugly left and their cohorts in the press into indignant critics. Not surprisingly, sources say Melania sponsored her parents’ green card application. 

Sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News first lady Melania Trump sponsored both her parents’ green card application, a move which eventually led to their gaining U.S. citizenship on Thursday through a process that the president has derisively called “chain migration”.

The first lady’s parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, were sworn in as U.S. citizens at a federal immigration court in New York City.

“Citizenship was just awarded,” the Slovenian couple’s immigration lawyer Michael Wildes said after accompanying them to the courthouse.

While the ABC News story admits it is impossible to tell if the Knavses were sponsored by the First Lady or became citizens through what is known as chain migration, judgments have been leveled.  Most importantly, everything was done legally.

“They have travailed a wonderful journey like most have – millions have – in getting citizenship and waiting the requisite period of time,” Wildes said. “The application, the process, the interview was no different than anybody else’s other than security arrangements to facilitate today.”

In February, the Knavses were confirmed as permanent residents of the United States after emigrating from Slovenia by Wildes.

That’s just not good enough for the disbelieving #NeverTrump brigade. They prefer to describe the Knavses’ citizenship path as chain migration – becoming American citizens because their daughter is an American citizen – because President Trump has stated a desire to end chain migration. How else would the ugly crowd get pleasure in such an easy excuse to call President Trump a hypocrite? Not all legal ways to becoming a U.S. citizen after holding a legal green card are in the chain migration category. It’s best to just stick with the facts.

 The US allows a number of ways for US citizens and legal permanent residents to sponsor family members to come to the US permanently, including categories for parents, adult siblings and adult children, married and unmarried.

The tsk-tsking tweets made the rounds on social media Thursday. Suddenly everyone on Twitter is an immigration law expert and eager to pass judgments without hearing all the facts, as the lawyer will not confirm either way. His clients ask for privacy, as private citizens.

https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/1027677987016192009

Melania’s spokeswoman won’t comment and her reason is the First Lady’s parents aren’t a part of the Trump administration.

The White House declined to comment on the Knavses’ newly acquired citizenship status, saying they were “not part of the administration and deserve privacy.”

After living between Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago for several years, Viktor and Amalija Knavs reportedly moved to the Washington suburbs following Trump’s inauguration,and are frequently spotted traveling with the first lady and the Trumps’ son, Barron Trump.

They sound like regular grandparents to me, though on a sliding scale. They live near their daughter’s family and help out with their grandchild.

And, the critics continue to conflate President Trump’s intention to reduce illegal immigration with an attempt to eliminate immigration. The descriptive word that is left out is the most important – ‘illegal’. (Emphasis mine)

This is the most anti-immigration administration probably in the history of the country, except when it comes to this family, and the hypocrisy is just stunning,” said David Leopold, an immigration lawyer in Cleveland. “He and his administration are on a crusade to rid the country of immigrants, particularly immigrants of color. What can you say when the first lady and her family have such an easy time?”

What is stunning to me, really, is this level of deception from the legal community and the journalists who can’t wait to quote them. That’s the real hypocrisy. They know better but they just don’t care because it is how they frame the narrative.