Tag: Stephen Miller

The Adviser Who Scripts Trump’s Immigration Policy

Washington Post logoWith unswerving loyalty, Stephen Miller has singular control of an issue central to the presidency

At President Trump’s speeches and rallies, Stephen Miller often can be found backstage, watching the teleprompter operator. As other White House staffers chat or look at their phones, Miller’s attention remains glued to the controls.

The energy and crowd-thrilling parts of Trump’s speeches usually happen during his impromptu diversions from the planned address. When Trump veers, colleagues say, Miller sometimes directs the operator to scroll higher or lower through the speech, so when the president is ready to pick it up again, he will hit those passages and make those points.

Miller knows where he wants the president to go.

View the complete August 17 article by Nick Miroff and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

Trump officials move to deny green cards, path to citizenship for poor immigrants

Washington Post logoImmigrants here legally who use public benefits — such as Medicaid, food stamps or housing assistance — could have a tougher time obtaining a green card under a policy change announced Monday that is at the center of the Trump administration’s effort to reduce immigration levels.

The new criteria for “Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds,” due to take effect Oct. 15, will set stricter standards for applicants seeking legal permanent residency in the United States, criteria that will skew the process in favor of the highly skilled, high-income immigrants President Trump covets. Since its first days, the Trump administration has been seeking ways to weed out immigrants the president sees as undesirable, including those who might draw on taxpayer-funded benefits.

Wealth, education, age and English-language skills will take on greater importance in the process of obtaining a green card, which is the main hurdle in the path to full U.S. citizenship. U.S. immigration law has long-
standing provisions to screen out foreigners who might be a burden on society, but the rule change amounts to an expansion of the government’s definition of “public charge” — and who is deemed likely to become one.

View the complete August 12 article by Abigail Hauslohner, Nick Miroff, Maria Sacchetti and Tracy Jan on The Washington Post website here.

Emails show Stephen Miller pressed hard to limit green cards

One former Trump official said White House senior adviser Stephen Miller has maintained a “singular obsession” with the public charge rule.

White House senior adviser Stephen Miller wasn’t getting an immigration regulation he wanted. So he sent a series of scorching emails to top immigration officials, calling the department an “embarrassment” for not acting faster.

The regulation in question would allow the Department of Homeland Security to bar legal immigrants from obtaining green cards if they receive certain government benefits. The rule will likely be released in the coming days, according to a pair of current and former Trump officials briefed on the timeline.

View the complete August 2 article by Ted Hesson on the Politico website here.

Stephen Miller defends Trump’s attacks on Rep. Omar

Washington Post logoA week after his racist tweets about four minority congresswomen, President Trump’s aides on Sunday defended his behavior, even as top Democrats sharply criticized him and pushed for greater accountability.

Stephen Miller, a White House senior adviser, had a heated back-and-forth with “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace over the president’s tweets as well as a North Carolina Trump rally where the crowd chanted “send her back,” targeting Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). Omar was born in Somalia and has been a U.S. citizen since she was 17.

Miller defended Trump and said the term “racist” has become a label used to silence and punish people.

View the complete July 21 article by Cat Zakrzewski and Felicia Sonmez on The Washington Post website here.

Acting secretary blocked Stephen Miller’s bid for another DHS shake-up

An attempt by President Trump’s senior adviser Stephen Miller to engineer a new shake-up at the Department of Homeland Security was blocked this week by Kevin McAleenan, the department’s acting secretary, who said he might leave his post unless the situation improved and he was given more control over his agency, administration officials said.

The closed-door clash flared over the fate of Mark Morgan, the former FBI official the president has picked to be the new director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

With Morgan eager to move into the top job at ICE, Miller on Wednesday urged the president to have Morgan installed as the new commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) instead.

View the complete May 18 article by Nick Miroff and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

Trump‘s latest immigration plan came with no Democratic outreach

Proposal appears going no further than White House Rose Garden

President Donald Trump unveiled his latest immigration overhaul plan Thursday, but given its lack of outreach to Democrats, it likely will go little further than the Rose Garden setting where it first saw light.

Trump used the White House backdrop to also reiterate some of his familiar hard-line immigration stances that may ingratiate him to his conservative base, but usually only repel Democrats and many independents.

“Democrats are proposing open borders, lower wages, and frankly, lawless chaos,” the self-described “America first” president said, adding: “We are proposing an immigration plan that puts the jobs, wages and safety of American workers first.”

View the complete May 16 article by John T. Bennett on The Roll Call website here.

White House rejects Democrats’ call for Stephen Miller to testify on immigration

The White House will refuse to allow senior adviser Stephen Miller to testify before the House Oversight Committee, according to a letter obtained by The Washington Post.

Oversight panel Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) received a letter from the White House counsel Wednesday denying his request that Miller come before the committee to testify on the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

“We are pleased that the Committee is interested in obtaining information regarding border security and much needed improvements to our immigration system,” White House Counsel Pat Cipollone wrote, offering to make available “cabinet secretaries and other agency leaders” to discuss the issue.

View the complete April 24 article by Colby Itkowitz and Rachael Bade on The Washington Post website here.

Democrats take aim at Miller as questions persist about ‘sanctuary city’ targeting

House Democrats are sharpening their focus on White House immigration adviser Stephen Miller, with key lawmakers saying he should be brought before congressional committees to testify about his role in recent policy controversies.

The talk of hauling Miller before lawmakers comes days after The Washington Post reported that he played a key role in a plan first discussed last year to release undocumented immigrants into “sanctuary cities” represented by President Trump’s Democratic critics. While the plan never came to fruition because of objections from agency officials, Trump has since embraced the idea.

With a spate of new vacancies at the Department of Homeland Security, including the departure last week of the secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, Miller has emerged as a key target for Democrats who see him as an influential survivor in an administration that has otherwise churned through personnel.

View the complete April 14 article by Mike DeBonis, Rachael Bade and Felicia Sonmez on The Washington Post website here.

Trump Sees an Obstacle to Getting His Way on Immigration: His Own Officials

WASHINGTON — Stephen Miller was furious — again.

The architect of President Trump’s immigration agenda, Mr. Miller was presiding last month over a meeting in the White House Situation Room when he demanded to know why the administration officials gathered there were taking so long to carry out his plans.

A regulation to deny welfare benefits to legal immigrants — a change Mr. Miller repeatedly predicted would be “transformative” — was still plodding through the approval process after more than two years, he complained. So were the new rules that would overturn court-ordered protections for migrant children. They were still not finished, he added, berating Ronald D. Vitiello, the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

View the complete April 14 article by Eileen Sullivan and Michael D. Shear on The New York Times website here.

Here are 21 facts that explain who Trump ‘puppet master’ Stephen Miller really is

The anti-immigrant Trump mouthpiece has been like this for a long time.

This story first ran in 2017.

Even among the right-wing ideologues doing the actual presidenting in this administration, Stephen Miller stands out for the copious amounts of Kool-Aid he mainlines. Speaking to the New York Times, a Trump team colleague described Miller as “fiercely loyal” to the president, “a true believer in every sense of the word.” Though he joined the campaign in its early days, penning many of the apocalyptic speeches that won fear-drunk Republican hearts and minds, Miller recently got a lot more visibility after a string of television appearances in defense of the Muslim ban. At each stop, Miller showed a flair for the dramatic: he lied, he dodged, he put on his best tyrant’s voice and proclaimed the executive branch above the law. It seemed contrived and forced, like a politically precocious, weasley teenager’s idea of how to command a crowd. According to those who know Miller’s history, that’s not so far off the mark.

Dating back to junior high school, Miller has been the unwavering right-winger now before us. Though the internet, and some of his family members, were quick to compare him to Joseph Goebbels, this reporter saw a resemblance to Roy Cohn—a Trump mentor—down to the sartorial details. Miller wears retro skinny suits, only recently ditched a chain-smoking habit and has the kind of cockiness that reads as unexamined, unsympathetic self-hatred. His barked orders and put-on baritone are all part of the package, and can strike an observer as funny. At least until you remember this guy is trying to turn the country into an all-white gated community. Continue reading “Here are 21 facts that explain who Trump ‘puppet master’ Stephen Miller really is”