by Amalija Knavs, a former Slovenian factory worker who became a U.S. citizen with the help of one of her daughters, Melania Trump, has died. She was 78 years old.
His death was announced Tuesday night by Mrs. Trump, the former first lady, on Day X. No cause was given.
During a New Year’s Eve party at her residence and private club, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida, Mrs. Knavs’ son-in-law, the former president Donald J. Trump said that Mrs. Knavs was “very sick” and that Mrs. Trump was with her mother in a Miami hospital.
“This is a very sad night for the entire Trump family!!!” Mr. Trump wrote on social networks. “Melania’s great and beautiful mother, Amalija, has just traveled to a beautiful place in heaven. She was an incredible woman and will be missed beyond words!
Ms. Knavs and her husband, Viktor, were naturalized as U.S. citizens in August 2018 under a process in which adult citizens can help their family members obtain green cards and obtain permanent resident status. Mrs. Trump had been her sponsor.
But months earlier, Trump had denounced this process as “chain migration” and wrote on Twitter, now X: “CHAIN MIGRATION must end now! Some people come in and bring their entire family with them, who can be truly evil. UNACCEPTABLE!”
Michael Wildes, the Knavs’ immigration attorney, said at the time that the Knavs had met the five-year requirement to have green cards before applying for citizenship.
The Knavs’ citizenship sparked critical responses from Trump’s detractors, including a tweet from Ana Navarro-Cárdenas, a Republican strategist, who wrote: “I guess when it comes to Melania’s family, it’s ‘family reunification’ and it should be applauded For everyone else, it is a ‘chain migration’ and it must be stopped.”
At the time, Amalija and Viktor Knavs were reportedly living in a penthouse in Trump Tower in Manhattan and also spending time at the White House and Mar-a-Lago.
Amalija Ulcnik was born on July 9, 1945 in Judendorf-Strassengel, Austria, and grew up there and in Slovenia, when it was still a republic in Yugoslavia before its independence. Her father, Anton Ulcnik, was a shoemaker and later a red onion farmer. Her mother, Amalija (Gliha) Ulcnik, was a housewife and seamstress.
Ms. Knavs harvested onions on her family’s farm before working at a state children’s clothing factory from 1964 to 1997. according to a profile of Melania Trump in The New Yorker. She was responsible for “creating patterns for mass production and monitoring how a given pattern affected the final work,” Bojan Pozar wrote in “Melania Trump: The Inside Story” (2016). She also sewed clothes for her daughters, Inés and Melania.
Mr. Knavs, who worked as a chauffeur and later as a car and motorcycle salesman, belonged to the Communist Party.
Melania, who changed the spelling of her name to Knauss during her modeling career, which began in Slovenia, said she was inspired by her mother’s work.
“My elegant and hard-working mother, Amalija, introduced me to fashion and beauty,” she said in her speech at the Republican National Convention in 2016. “My father, Viktor, instilled in me a passion for business and travel. “His integrity, compassion and intelligence are reflected to this day in me and my love for my family and America.”
Mrs. Knavs’ survivors include her husband; Mrs. Trump; her eldest daughter, Inés Knauss; and her grandson, Barron Trump.
Mrs. Trump had her own immigration story. According to media reports, Mrs. Trump received the so-called Einstein visa, or EB-1, in 2001 for “individuals of extraordinary ability” when she was a model.
He appeared on the cover of British magazine GQ in 2000, the year before applying for the visa, and appeared in Sports Illustrated and other magazines that same year.
She married Trump in 2005 and became a citizen the following year.
Orlando Mayorquin contributed reports.
