By Katherine Tinsley
2:25am PDT, Mar 27, 2025
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Donald Trump is working to terminate birthright citizenship. Maxine Waters noted how his policies would've affected his wife, Melania Trump.
"When [Trump] talks about birthright, and he's going to undo the fact that the Constitution allows those who are born here, even if the parents are undocumented, they have a right to stay in America, if he wants to start looking so closely to find those who were born here and their parents were undocumented, maybe he ought to first look at Melania," Waters said.
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Donald Trump wants to prevent children of immigrant parents from obtaining citizenship at birth, but Melania Trump and the president's late mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, immigrated to the United States from European nations.
"We don't know whether or not her parents were documented," Maxine Waters said. "And maybe we better just take a look."
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Maxine Waters urged supporters to fight against Donald Trump and his administration.
"We are here because we are not going to let Trump, we're not going to let Elon Musk, his co-president, or anybody else take the United States Constitution down," she said.
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In 2023, Melania Trump discussed her struggle to become an American.
"My personal experience of traversing the challenges of the immigration process opened my eyes to the harsh realities people face, including you, who try to become U.S. citizens," she said, according to CBS News.
"And then, of course, there are nuances of understanding the United States immigration laws and the complex legal language," the model added.
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At the time, Melania Trump told residents looking to obtain an American passport to remain hopeful.
"Patience and perseverance became my constant companions as I navigated through this intricate web, which I'm sure you can all relate to," she said.
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In Melania Trump's self-titled memoir, the former model claims she argued with Donald Trump over his policy regarding the separation of undocumented children from their parents.
"This has to stop," Melania says she told her husband, "emphasizing the trauma it was causing these families."
"Occasional political disagreements between me and my husband were a part of our relationship," Melania writes. "But, I believed in addressing them privately rather than publicly challenging him. I found our discussions more productive when we could have a quiet dialogue at home, out of the public eye."
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Melania Trump became a citizen in 2006. In her book, she writes that she wasn't quiet about her discomfort with Donald Trump's choices.
"I am sympathetic to all who wish to find a better life in this country. As an immigrant myself, I intimately understand the necessary if arduous, process of legally becoming an American," she writes.
