I stan for Rep. Jasmine Crockett and her questions about Melania Trump’s path to U.S. citizenship

Four of President Donald Trump’s children were born to two different women, who both happened to be immigrants. The president’s own mother immigrated to this country from Scotland; his paternal grandparents came from Germany.

It’s essential to point this out because it not only underscores the hypocrisy of Trump’s deportation plan, but it also illustrates how diabolical it is that Trump is doing everything in his power to set up naturalization roadblocks for other immigrants.

Not only does the president want to rewrite the rules for birthright citizenship, but he wants to keep America’s refugee resettlement program suspended indefinitely. He makes exceptions for white South Africans to move here, but then tries to force out Haitians by taking away their temporary protection status.

Trump needs to be called out on his racist immigration policies. That’s why I stan, as the young folks say, for Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D., Texas), who is daring to question first lady Melania Trump’s path to U.S. citizenship.

She’s not the first to do so (the topic was all over the media during Trump’s first term), but Crockett’s comments made it part of the legislative record.

Crockett, the “Clapback Queen”(Remember her May 2024 takedown of Marjorie Taylor Greene?), brought it up last week during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on restoring integrity and security to the visa process. She began by aptly pointing out, “Integrity is not snatching lawful visa holders off the streets and throwing them into unmarked vans.”

Then she pivoted by adding, “And since we’re talking about integrity, I’m confused as to why my Republican colleagues aren’t talking about the lack of integrity when it comes to the president’s family’s visas.”

Born in Slovenia, Melania Knauss applied for an EB-1 visa — commonly referred to as an “Einstein visa” — in 2000, when she was dating Trump; she was approved for it in 2002. As its nickname implies, the visa is typically reserved for people of extraordinary merit.

“The last time I checked, the first lady had none of those accolades under her belt,” Crockett said, before adding, “It doesn’t take an Einstein to see that the math ain’t mathing here.”

“We can’t play footsie.”

Not only did Melania manage to obtain her own citizenship in 2006, but she was also able to use the Trump-maligned chain migration process to help her parents become American citizens in 2018.

I’m glad Crockett spoke up. There shouldn’t be one set of rules — wink wink — for those with the kind of proximity to power the first lady has, and another set for those who arrive with the same hopes and dreams she may have had, but lack the same kind of resources or connections.

Granted, there are those who are here for nefarious purposes, but I’m not talking about them. I’m referring to people such as the hardworking father of two whom I wrote about earlier this year, Jesreel Chimilio, who was brought to the United States as a minor and lived in Germantown with his family before he was picked up and sent back to Belize.

I’m concerned about the children born in the U.S. to undocumented parents, like the 10-year-old U.S. citizen with brain cancer who was recently sent to Mexico when her family was deported.

And my heart goes out to people such as 55-year-old U.S. Army veteran Sae Joon Par. Not only did he fight honorably for America, but he was also awarded a Purple Heart. That wasn’t enough, however, to keep him from having to self-deport to South Korea last week to avoid being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement due to legal issues stemming from illegal drug use that he said was prompted by post-traumatic stress disorder that stemmed from his military service.

Hearts are changing as more Americans recognize the need for more paths to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. According to a Quinnipiac poll released Friday, 64% of voters want to give most undocumented immigrants a pathway to legal status.

Meanwhile, Trump cracked jokes earlier this week when he was talking about a new immigration detention center in Florida nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz.”

If Crockett had been there, she wouldn’t have let him get away with that. As she pointed out during a recent interview with former NBC News anchor Katie Couric, when it comes to Trump, “We can’t play footsie.”

These aren’t normal times. It’s past time we stopped acting like they are.

I admire Crockett’s clarity here. She’s not afraid to call Trump and his MAGA allies out. Other government leaders shouldn’t be, either.