During a House Judiciary hearing, Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett questioned the fairness of Trump’s recent immigration tactics and spotlighted an eyebrow raising example in Melania Trump’s own visa history.
While Trump doubles down on aggressive immigration measures, labeling student visas privileges, ordering ICE raids, expanding social media vetting, and implementing bans targeting 19 countries, Crockett pointed out a glaring inconsistency. Why the strict scrutiny for everyday immigrants but not for those close to the president?
She told the committee, “Integrity isn’t snatching lawful visa holders off the streets…and it’s not revoking visas over social media posts that hurt somebody’s feelings. We have free speech in this country.” But that wasn’t all. She went after a glaring double standard, specifically Melania’s 2001 EB1 “extraordinary ability” visa, commonly dubbed the Einstein visa.
“These visas usually go to Nobel laureates, Olympic medalists, Pulitzer winners, people with massive achievements,” Crockett noted. Melania, she added, “was a model but not on the level of Tyra, Cindy, or Naomi” yet she scored the EB1.
Crockett didn’t stop there. “It doesn’t take an Einstein to see the math ain’t mathin’ here.”
Then, in came Alex Nowrasteh from the Cato Institute, offering a cheeky defense, “Not everybody could marry Donald Trump…that’s quite an achievement.” To that Crockett quipped, “You’re sure right I couldn’t have done it.”
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Under EB1 rules, applicants must either hold major international awards or meet at least three criteria like substantial media coverage or significant contributions. Melania did grace the cover of British GQ and appeared in other UK and US magazines but did that really count as extraordinary?
She first came to the US in 1996 on a tourist visa, then moved into more specialized modeling visas, eventually meeting Donald Trump in 1998. Her team says that shift happened while she pursued high end modeling in New York City.
Crockett’s questioning isn’t just hype. It’s pointing out that while Trump cracks down on immigrants and student visas, even slapping new executive orders on Harvard’s international students, there’s a glaring lack of attention on the immigration journey of the first family.
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