Amalija Knavs, mother of former First Lady Melania Trump, dies at the age of 78

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.

Her death was announced Tuesday evening by Mrs. Trump, the former first lady, on X. No reason was given.

During a New Year’s Eve party at his residence and private club, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida, Ms. Knavs’ son-in-law, former president Donald J. Trump, said that Ms. Knavs was “very ill” and that Ms. Trump was in a Miami hospital with her mother.

Ms. Knavs and her husband, Viktor, naturalized as U.S. citizens in August 2018 under a process that allows adult citizens to assist their family members in obtaining a green card and obtaining permanent resident status. Mrs. Trump had been their sponsor.

But months earlier, Mr. Trump had denounced that process as “chain migration,” writing on Twitter, now X: “CHAIN ​​MIGRATION must end now! Some people come in and bring their whole family, which can be really bad. NOT ACCEPTABLE!”

Michael Wildes, an immigration attorney for the Knavses, said at the time that the Knavses had met the five-year green card requirement before applying for citizenship.

Citizenship for the Knavses prompted critical responses from Trump’s opponents, including a tweet from Ana Navarro-Cárdenas, a Republican strategist, who wrote: “I think when it comes to Melania’s family, it is ‘family reunification’ and should be welcomed . For everyone else it is ‘chain migration’ and must be stopped.”

At the time, Amalija and Viktor Knavs reportedly lived in a penthouse in Manhattan’s Trump Tower and also spent 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.

Mrs. Knavs harvested onions on her family’s farm before working in a state-owned 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 Ines and Melania.

Mr. Knavs, who worked as a driver 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 started in Slovenia, said she was inspired by her mother’s work.

“My elegant and hardworking mother Amalija introduced me to fashion and beauty,” she said in her speech to the Republican National Convention in 2016. “My father, Viktor, instilled in me a passion for business and travel. Their integrity, compassion and intelligence reflect on me and my love for family and America to this day.”

Mrs. Knavs’ survivors include her husband; Mrs. Trump; her eldest daughter, Ines Knauss; and her grandson, Barron Trump.

Mrs. Trump had her own immigration history. According to news reports, Mrs. Trump received a so-called Einstein, or EB-1, visa for “individuals of extraordinary ability” in 2001 while she was modeling.

She appeared on the cover of British GQ in 2000, the year before she applied for the visa, and was featured in Sports Illustrated and other magazines later that year.

She married Mr. Trump in 2005 and became a citizen the following year.

Mayor of Orlando reporting contributed.