Stephen Miller worked for Donald Trump beginning during the 2016 campaign, continued to the transition team, and finally took the role as Senior Advisor and White House Director of Speechwriting, which he held through January 2021. Miller is considered the chief architect of much of the administration’s immigration policy, including the so-called travel ban in 2017 and the family separation policy.
Left their role as White House senior advisor when Trump left office in January 2021.
New Reporting Revealed Miller Led Meeting In Which He Forced Administration Officials To Vote On Effort To Separate Immigrant Families. “In early May 2018, after weeks of phone calls and private meetings, 11 of the president’s most senior advisers were called to the White House Situation Room, where they were asked, by a show-of-hands vote, to decide the fate of thousands of migrant parents and their children, according to two officials who were there. President Donald Trump’s senior adviser Stephen Miller led the meeting, and, according to the two officials, he was angry at what he saw as defiance by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. … “Miller was tired of hearing about logistical problems,” one of the officials said. “It was just ‘Let’s move forward and staff will figure this out.'” Frustrated, Miller accused Nielsen of stalling and demanded a show of hands. Who was in favor of moving forward? he asked. A sea of hands went up. Nielsen kept hers down. It was clear she had been outvoted, according to the officials.” [NBC News, 8/20/20]
Headline: NBC News: “Trump Cabinet Officials Voted In 2018 White House Meeting To Separate Migrant Children, Say Officials.” [NBC News, 8/20/20]
Miller Told Officials At Meeting “If We Don’t Enforce This, It Is The End Of Our Country As We Know It.” “At the meeting, Miller accused anyone opposing zero tolerance of being a lawbreaker and un-American, according to the two officials present. “If we don’t enforce this, it is the end of our country as we know it,” Miller said, according to the two officials. It was not unusual for Miller to make claims like that, but this time he was adamant that the policy move forward, regardless of arguments about resources and logistics.” [NBC News, 8/20/20]
Headline: NBC News: “Trump adviser Stephen Miller reveals aggressive second-term immigration agenda.” [NBC News, 10/30/20]
New York Times: Miller “Never Gave Up On The Idea” Of Family Separation Policy. “But advocates inside the administration, most prominently Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s senior policy adviser, never gave up on the idea. Last month, facing a sharp uptick in illegal border crossings, Mr. Trump ordered a new effort to criminally prosecute anyone who crossed the border unlawfully — with few exceptions for parents traveling with their minor children.” [New York Times, 6/16/18]
NYT: “Miller Was Instrumental In Mr. Trump’s Decision To Ratchet Up The Zero Tolerance Policy.” “In October, after Mr. Trump ended Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era program that gave legal status to undocumented immigrants raised in the United States, Mr. Miller insisted that any legislative package to codify those protections contain changes to close what he called the loopholes encouraging illegal immigrants to come. And in April, after the border numbers reached their zenith, Mr. Miller was instrumental in Mr. Trump’s decision to ratchet up the zero tolerance policy.” [New York Times, 6/16/18]
