(The Lion) — As talk of the deportation of illegal immigrants took center stage with the advent of President Donald Trump’s second term this week, two immigrant-minded ladies stood out during the inauguration.
The First Lady is a naturalized American citizen and the Second Lady, the daughter of naturalized Americans.
First Lady Melania Trump, who was born in Slovenia (then a part of Yugoslavia) immigrated from Europe in 1996 as an aspiring model.
Second Lady Usha Vance is the daughter of Indian scientists who migrated to the U.S. in 1980, prior to Usha’s birth.
Both ladies were widely credited for the style and grace they brought to the inauguration and the inaugural balls.
And both are products of legal immigration, a priority in the Trump/Vance administration.
The media coverage, by the fashion-minded at least, of these two top-U.S. wives, belie the usual media coverage of the Trump/Vance team as horrible xenophobes.
On Tuesday, Trump shut down the asylum application system known as CPB One that Biden used to transit otherwise illegal immigrants into the country to await court action on their application for “asylum.”
Despite the general knowledge that Trump would lock down the border in this way – because he announced it in advance – the media trumpeted headlines in unison about would-be illegal immigrants being stranded on the Mexican side of the border, and feeling disappointed.
“I Feel Rage, I Feel Sadness,” one would-be illegal told the New York Times.
“I don’t know what will become of us,” another told a foreign media outlet.
In addition to shutting down the asylum application system, Trump has issued an executive order aimed at so-called “anchor babies,” i.e. children who were born in the U.S. to parents who immigrated illegally. The 14th Amendment generally confers citizenship to anyone born in the U.S.
But Trump has held a longstanding belief that people born in the U.S. to parents who are in the country illegally should not be granted citizenship under the 14th Amendment.
“I don’t think they have American citizenship and if you speak to some very, very good lawyers – and I know some will disagree, but many of them agree with me – and you’re going to find they do not have American citizenship,” Trump told Bill O’Reilly in 2015.
Democrats are challenging Trump on the issue, with 22 states filing suit to stop the anchor baby order.
“We have to start a process where we take back our country,” Trump had said in 2015, and repeated in 2024.
Trump and Vance, and Republicans in general, struck a nerve last year with voters who agreed the country was in trouble, especially because of illegal immigration.
Voters felt their own rage and sadness over the last four years as illegal immigrants who were let into the U.S. in record numbers under Biden strained resources of local, state and the federal governments.
Just in 2023, New York City alone spent $1.5 billion on housing illegal immigrants and admitted the costs could soar as high as $12 billion over the next three years.
The surge of illegals caused budget troubles in school districts around the country, including in New York, Denver, Chicago and Los Angeles.
Besides the fact that both Trump and Vance married women strongly associated with legal immigration, Trump reiterated his position of welcoming legal immigrants, even as he signed an executive order shutting down illegal immigration.
“I’m fine with legal immigration. I like it,” Trump told reporters as he signed executive orders. “We need people, and I’m absolutely fine with it. We want to have it. We need it because we’re going to have a lot of companies coming in to avoid tariffs. You know, if you don’t want tariffs, all you have to do is build your plant in the U.S. So, we’re going to have a lot of workers coming in, but we have to have legal immigration.”
It’s not the first time Trump has made such statements.
Similarly, from the campaign trail Vance also reiterated his commitment to legal immigration, citing his wife’s experience.
“I’m married to the daughter of legal immigrants to this country, people who respected the country enough to follow the rules before they came, and I think that’s very important,” Vance told reporters in Valdosta, Georgia. “And look, I love my wife more than anything in this world. I am so grateful that her family came here, but I’m also grateful that they came here in the right way and built a life in this country the right way. That really matters.”
He said the administration’s message to everybody who wants to come to this country is to come through the right channels, just like his wife’s family did.
