Weeks after campaign pledged answers, big questions about Melania Trump’s immigration status linger

[Native]

Source: Philip Bump, WaPo

Remember Trump promising that Melania would explain everything in a news conference? That was about 3 1/2 weeks ago. Well, there are even more questions to ask now...

Curious about the extent to which marrying an American citizen washed away any previous immigration problems, I reached out to David Leopold, an immigration attorney from Cleveland and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. He explained that the popular understanding of how immigration is linked to marriage is wrong — but also noted a number of other questions worth asking about Melania Trump's arrival in the United States.

People seem to think that marrying a U.S. citizen automatically confers citizenship status, but it doesn't, it just makes them eligible to go through the process of applying for a green card. And the only way to get the green card after the marriage is if you have entered the U.S. lawfully.

"If I marry somebody who is undocumented, the only way at this point she is going to get a green card is if she lawfully entered the United States originally," Leopold said. "If the person entered the country without inspection — I married a woman who crossed the border or entered through fraud or something like that — then she is ineligible to get a green card in the United States." There are exceptions that apply, but this is a critical point: If someone committed fraud or entered the country illegally, they cannot get a green card unless they receive a waiver for doing so.

So determining whether Melania entered the U.S. legally is the $64,000 question.

The article points out the discrepancies in what Melania has stated - that she had to travel back & forth to keep her visa while she was working in the U.S. - travel that is only required if you have a visitor's visa (a visa that doesn't allow you to work).

If Melania Trump came in on a visitor visa and began working over a short period of time, the government would assume that she entered the country fraudulently. If she told a customs official she was entering the United States as a visitor but was planning to work, that's a material misrepresentation.

To get a work-related immigrant visa, Leopold added, Trump's prospective employer would have had to prove that Trump filled a job duty that no American could fill — to show, in other words, that no other model in New York City would have done that shoot. Unless, of course, she had special skills — or a special degree.

And remember that architectural design degree she said she obtained from the University of Slovenia? The one that was mentioned on the program at the Republican Convention and was also on her website - the website that she mysteriously took down when all of this came to light?

Bingo!

And, yes, the article mentions what can happen if you've become a citizen under false pretenses, but you'll have to read that for yourselves to find out.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/02/weeks-after-pledging-answers-big-questions-about-melania-trumps-immigration-status-linger/

[politicaljunkie41910]

2. Lock her up. Lock her up. Lock her up. Lock her up.

But then who knows. Trump may be ready to trade her in for a new model, already. We know he doesn't sleep with her since he stays up all night tweeting. He also said in an interview with Howard Stern years ago that his girlfriend Melania, was pregnant, and she told him she was on birth control. I guess Trump couldn't imagine that someone married him for a green card rather than his looks, or charm, or his money. No that couldn't be the case, could it?

[rickford66]

3. I married a British citizen

To even enter the US, we had to apply for a Fiance's Visa. Since I was a Vet returning to College, I had not enough income to support her as the Immigration Service required, my father had to write a letter to guarantee her support for the 90 days her visa was good for. If we didn't get married within the 90 days, she had to leave. After we married, we had to submit to an investigation at Immigration in Philly. We were questioned separately and if our answers weren't satisfactory, she could still have been deported at my father's expense. She came on a one-way ticket. Did the Trumps go through all this? I doubt it.

[whistler162]

4. I hear Carmen SanDiego was fired

and Melaniaa Trump was hired!


Where in the world is Melania Trump!