Could Melania Trump be Deported Under New Immigration Rules

MSNBC’s Joy Reid didn’t hold back Thursday night, unleashing a fiery warning aimed straight at President Donald Trump: If you weaponize citizenship laws now, your own family could be next.

The moment came during an explosive segment of The ReidOut, where Reid interviewed Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) in response to Trump’s increasingly aggressive stance on immigration and citizenship. Reid pointed to First Lady Melania Trump—an immigrant and naturalized U.S. citizen—as a glaring example of how Trump’s own proposals could eventually backfire.

“What Happens When It’s Your Family?”

“If we let this president strip people of their citizenship because he doesn’t like their politics or where they come from,” Reid told Jayapal, “then what’s stopping the next Democratic president from saying, ‘I don’t like Melania Trump—she was born in Slovenia—so she’s outta here’?”

Reid also brought up Trump’s late ex-wife Ivana Trump, who never became a U.S. citizen before her death in 2022. “Three of her kids—Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric—were born to a foreign national. What happens if the rules change on them too?” she asked.

“Once you open the door to denaturalization as a political tool, you can’t close it again,” Reid warned. “It’s not just cruel—it’s dangerous.”

Trump Floats Mass Deportation of Citizens

The controversy erupted earlier this week after President Trump toured an ICE facility in the Florida Everglades, nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz” for its remote swamp location and harsh conditions. During his visit, he shocked reporters by suggesting that even U.S.-born citizens could be subject to deportation.

“They’re not new to our country—they’re old to our country,” Trump said. “Some of them were even born here. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here too, if you want to know the truth.”

The White House later tried to walk back the remark, but the damage was done.

Justice Department Memo Raises Eyebrows

Adding fuel to the fire, the Justice Department released a memo this week quietly giving U.S. Attorneys greater discretion to pursue denaturalization cases—legal actions that strip individuals of their citizenship status, even if they’ve held it for decades.

Civil rights groups say the timing is no coincidence.

“This is all part of the Trump playbook: normalize the unthinkable, then make it law,” said Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.

Targeting Political Opponents?

Critics say Trump has already begun using immigration enforcement as a political weapon.

Just last week, the president falsely accused Zohran Mamdani—the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor—of being in the country illegally, threatening him with arrest and deportation. Mamdani, who immigrated to the U.S. from Uganda at age seven, has been a naturalized American citizen since 2018.

A “Victory” on Birthright Citizenship

Meanwhile, Trump scored a major legal victory when the Supreme Court allowed states to begin implementing his controversial birthright citizenship rollback. The ruling stopped short of deciding whether Trump’s plan is constitutional, but it did allow half the country to begin denying citizenship to the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants.

“This is a monumental win for the Constitution and the rule of law,” Trump declared at a rally in Phoenix. “We’re taking our country back.”

Rubio’s Family History Resurfaces

During her segment, Reid also pointedly brought up Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Trump’s current Secretary of State, whose own family benefited from the very immigration protections Trump is now trying to dismantle. Rubio’s grandfather entered the U.S. illegally in the 1960s and defied a deportation order for years before gaining legal status.

“Would Rubio’s family survive under these rules?” Reid asked. “Doubtful.”

The Bigger Picture

Trump’s allies say the president is simply enforcing the law. But critics warn that these escalations—from targeting birthright citizenship to threatening naturalized citizens—mark a dark turning point in American immigration policy.

“If Donald Trump can revoke citizenship from immigrants he doesn’t like, then no one’s safe,” Rep. Jayapal said during the interview. “This isn’t law and order. It’s authoritarianism, plain and simple.