We can hope that Trump gets tired of him for some reason or another. Or he'll do something displeasing, or get too much attention, and then- swipe:
“You can be merry with the king, you can share a joke with him. But as Thomas More used to say, it's like sporting with a tamed lion. You tousle its mane and pull its ears, but all the time you're thinking, those claws, those claws, those claws.”
― Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies
3
In the picture, Steven Miller is impersonating a Border Patrol officer. Is this illegal?
4
We can only hope Miller continues his overbearing approach to push his despicable immigration agenda on this President will alienate the loathsome Trump so much that he fires his advisor.
2
Stephen Miller -- He seems to be doing everything he can do be, if not the King, the voice in the King's ear. He seems that he read the book "Management by Attila the Hun."
1
It does indeed sound like "the law" is getting in the way of keeping this nation secure and safe. We must have zealots such as Mr. Miller and President Trump to limit immigration into the United States and do the other things described in full paragraph twelve (12) in this article. We must lower the number of refugees allowed in, imposing travel bans, limit work permits and and slow asylum processing and speed up denaturalization proceedings.
Those dark sunglasses won't hide his eyes
1
How can there be such a hateful person. What is he afraid of?
So weak.
5
Stephen Miller is a sociopath who first found his way to the side of Jeff Sessions, himself not a paragon of racial harmony. He then found his way onto Trump’s staff. Miller is more hard line on immigration than Trump, having already blown up potential DACA deals. Anyone who demonizes women and children fleeing violence, grinding poverty, and environmental degradation has something seriously wrong in their character.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have an orderly and lawful process for asylum seekers. But that means each person is entitled to due process. Just because most don’t prevail in front of an immigration judge, usually without legal representation, doesn’t mean their claims are unfounded. And the 20% who do prevail are stark proof of the gravity and magnitude of the threats to many northern triangle residents.
Instead, the administration’s actions essentially amount to slamming the door in people’s faces. They favor separating children from their parents, firing tear gas at migrants planning asylum claims, and forcing immigrants to face greater risks by prolonged stays just across the border or by entering between ports of entry.
These actions do nothing to help. Instead they’re the actions of defective human beings seeking to deny others their legal right to claim asylum under US law. And threatening to bus immigrants to random cities is just insane. As insane as an escalator ride followed by a speech about Mexican rapists and murderers.
8
Border between the U.S. and Canada is OK. But why is the border between the U.S. and Mexico not OK?
These immigrants come to the U.S. primarily to escape problems in their native countries (Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama) which includes a stagnant economy, high levels of crime, political corruption and widespread drug use. There is a legal way to request a green card to enter the U.S., however unlawful mobs entry is not allowed. Shame and disgrace of all these central American countries and their governments who fail to feed their people, to give them medical care, good housing, and jobs. These central American countries and their governments are the ones at fault.
Sorry that your country does not love you anymore. To find true love you need to find and walk on God’s Holy road which will one day open the gate to His Kingdom in Heaven. The road you are currently walking is man made and will only bring you tears and despair, darkness and regrets.
1
So the United States is being run by one unelected person?
12
It fascinates me how people in senior positions with years of experience and service as well as recent cabinet appointments, can be fired at the whim of the President or one of his lackeys for no valid reason at all!
Whether they be the attorney General of the United States, a senior FBI Official or a public servant with years of experience and expertise , they can lose their job at the behest of the President who doesn't even have to give cause or reason for his decision.
And yet the President himself is almost impossible to fire even when he incites fear and violence, creates division, constantly lies and even colludes with foreign politicians (even if that just goes as far as privately talking with them with no other person allowed, the press barred and the things discussed never released)...
Is that how things are supposed to work in the U.S ? No rule of law in terms of job security or protections and no easy ability to control or remove a President that risks damaging the Country in so many ways and means and making its own people angry and divided against each other as he also endeavours to deny millions the security and protection of Health Insurance by taking it away.
Who can think that this person can or even wants to make America Great again when all he seems to be doing is making America more unequal, fearful, angry and divided as he denies the truth, expounds a daily litany of lies and deceit and gets to do and say almost anything he wants to.
What a joke.
12
Stephen Miller is a woefully inexperienced general. The United States has already suffered international scorn because of this this man, and it has suffered episodes of chaos and cruelty atypical of us because of him.
He has no education in law or international law. He has no experience as an elected politician. He has no experience as a scholar of international relations. He appears to have no understanding of what constitutes inhumane treatment of children and babies. He doesn't even, in an administration driven by religionists, operate by any publicly stated code of ethics.
He has no business writing U.S. law, and he has no business yelling at employees of the U.S. government. Who died and made him king?
14
Decency died and made him king.
6
Stephen Miller's ignorance of the rule of law is breathtaking. Moreover, I suspect that his relatives were once immigrants, as were Donald Trump's. They should both be ashamed of themselves for their juvenile behavior (but I have no expectation that they will realize that fact). Immigration law exists to protect our nation along with those who chose to immigrate here. Until Mr Miller learns that lesson, he will continue to be frustrated, perhaps until he and Mr. Trump depart the White House. Hopefully that will be January, 2021. Until then, we are in for a bumpy ride.
3
Miller and Trump had both houses of Congress from 2017-2019. Why didn't you get it done in those two years? Oh right - you had a deal with Schumer and Durbin and couldn't stand to give the Dreamers a path to citizenship so now you're stuck with no wall and the Dreamers are still here and a divided Congress.
Nice work.
5
What a revolting and frightening man. I use the word loosely.
8
And who do you suppose will be the new immigration czar? Why no one other than their own, their very own, Steven miller!
How someone could become so twisted that he believes that no cruelty is to brutal to get what he wants, without ever having explained to the people of this country, who never elected him, whose elected senators never confirmed him, who never chose him to hold power in this supposed democracy, why he hates people so bad.
Stephen Miller, great grandson of refugees, is a disgrace.
7
Was Stephan Miller not hugged as a child. Was he he rebuffed at school when he asked a Latina girl our for a date? Such venom must have a reason...
7
How long before we start annexing parts of Mexico?
Hey it's all the rage these days! If China and Russia and now Israel are doing it, maybe we should too! I don't know, let's go for some tropical *foreign* or *Mexican* country like Puerto Rico. At least we can save on paper towels.
1
There are undoubtedly so many facets to the border "crisis," but it's disillusioning to see how few references there are to the horrifically painful circumstances which force people to flee their own countries. Let's not let the humanity be drained from discussions about which solution would work best.
2
"To Mr. Miller, the asylum process was a giant loophole that needed to be plugged." I wonder if Mr. Miller would be so adamant and histrionic if the asylum seekers were his folks and/or others of European heritage? No doubt they would be greeted with open arms and given refuge. It seems his issue and that of Trump is with asylum seekers who are of a different color! Shows a lack of maturity, inexperience and intolerance towards people of other cultures.
2
I don’t suppose Miller sees any irony in the fact that the very immigration laws that welcomed his ancestors, escaping from Belarusian pogroms, into our country are the ones he’s trying so hard to gut. I may be incorrect, but I don’t believe anything in our immigration laws state that unless refugees are escaping religious intolerance, they are not eligible to enter.
3
Leave the crude caricature of Stephen Miller aside: it's an embarrassment for the "Times." More important is the reality we have an immigration/asylum system which is a colossal failure: a sick joke. Our immigration policy continues to bring in millions of low-skill, low-education Third World people who can barely subsist in our current post-industrial economy and will become totally obsolete when the next big thing --robotics and machine-learning -- take over the job market. Then we will have tens of millions of recent arrivals with no real job prospects joining the nearly 50 million Americans also not in the workforce. Does anyone with a pulse actually believe Social Security and Medicare will survive the vast drain on our resources? In addition, since the Establishment elite has gone globalist and the left eschews the melting pot as "racist," the millions of arrivals who will not assimilate will further balkanize a country which is already divided in two politically. Research reported in Reham Salam's "Melting Pot or Civil War" finds first-generation American children of Central-American farm workers will have only a 6 percent chance of going to university -- from which it follows that their chances of holding stable jobs, receiving job benefits or eventually owning a home are next to nil. We are creating a permanent underclass.
2
If any of Trump's Lackeys are mad or belligerent, it is only with the ruler's permission that this is allowed and most likely encouraged. It is all so obvious now. Trump came and saw the greed and corruption among the GOP politicians and it took no time at all for him to rein them in to do his bidding. He used his naive supporters’ voting block as a club to beat down any resistance. He knew the power of television to manipulate people and sold himself as a successful businessman in “The Apprentice” who could "Make America Great Again” despite his true reality of questionable associations, bankruptcies and corruption. When this is all over and falls into a dust bin in history, we will be left with the truth and a reality that can no longer be manipulated or changed. Anyone (and by association, their close associates and families) who supported Trump or who he conned into using as a tool for his personal gain will have to live with the humiliation and dishonor for decades to come.
4
Miller doesn’t comprehend the legalities of the process, and speaks to his subordinates in this way?
Think of this as you go about your day. Utterly and completely misplaced. Your tax dollars at work here.
3
Both sides (Republicans & Democrats ) are stuck and bickering ; there is no motion and no resolution to our generous immigration laws granting asylum that desperately need to be changed . I'm sorry for the immigrants that are flooding our borders , but there needs to be stricter laws put in place . Are we obligated to accept the entire populations of these countries ? There will always be poor people who flee their circumstances . Steven Miller is dweeb , who has made a career of being hateful and exacerbates the situation making the Dems more entrenched in opposition . The Dems come across as insincere , mouthing what will get them elected . There will be no change and we will be doomed to repeat what happened in Europe ; a flood of humanity that was unstoppable .
1
It is very clear Trump and his staff expect people to break laws for him.
Trump has never cared if his actions were legal or not, he just has his lawyers threaten and sue whenever he is caught.
Mitch McConnell and former Speaker Paul Ryan didn't have a problem with this.
Pelosi and the Democrats do.
It's that pesky phrase from the Oath of Office all politicians - even Trump - swore:
"and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."
These words do have meaning, even if the GOP has forgotten.
Let's hear the argument in favor of allowing people to illegally sneak into the country.
Turn them back at the border. Make this Mexico's problem. Mexico allows these people to sneak into Mexico at Mexico's southern border and then traverse Mexico. If these folks got bottled up in Mexico, unable to get into the USA, they would get stuck in Mexico. Maybe then Mexico would do something about this.
When you come right down to it these immigrants are much more compatible with Mexicans than they are with Americans.
Plus, let's stop referring to these potential immigrants as "asylum seekers". It's not like they're fleeing nazis or Stalin or Castro.
20
@MIKEinNYC Typically, they are fleeing gang violence where they are trying to prevent having their young children forcibly recruited into violent gangs. Who are you to say they are not fleeing "nazis or Stalin or Castro"? They are fleeing real violence, real threats to their lives and - mostly - to their children. So much so that the idea of their children ending up in a US prison is less catastrophic than seeing them roped into a life of violent crime at home.
33
@MIKEinNYC you don’t know their stories. They have to present them to a judge and if they qualify, they get asylum. If not, they go back. It’s not just Mexicans traveling through the border but other Central American countries. As another poster pointed out, under Bush & Obama, border crossings were on the decline. Somehow Trump’s efforts at curtailing immigrants has backfired! This is not surprising.
23
I strongly encourage you to read up on the situation of femicide in Honduras, which, conveniently enough, the Times documented within the last week or so. This is just one of many horrendous issues people in South America are contending with, and for what it’s worth, most of said troubles are compounded by drug policies created and inflicted by the United States.
21
I like Steven Miller and am thankful that someone like him is pushing to do what's right. Illegal is illegal. Unfortunately, despite his good intentions, it's the laws enacted by Congress around asylum and deportations that stymie any real attempt to control the boarder. In reality, all illegal immigrants no matter their circumstance should be immediately loaded up on buses and planes and sent home. Asylum should be limited to those suffering persecution by their governments, not including people who live in disorderly societies with gang violence. Oh, and by the way, yes, I support e-verify and harsh punishments for employers who conspire to hire illegals.
11
@DRS
" Oh, and by the way, yes, I support e-verify and harsh punishments for employers who conspire to hire illegals."
Lets start that by putting Trump in prison for repeated, brazen and flagrant violation of laws by employing undocumented.
8
@DRS You and I have very different concepts of "what's right", and "good intentions".
4
@DRS
If Miller's ideas on immigration had held sway when his grandfather immigrated from Eastern Europe in 1906, Miller would not be here. His grandfather and one of the elder sons brought their entire family along later.
So perhaps Miller is right, as he is certainly not worthy of living in the US. We need ambitious, intelligent hard workers who will become proficient with abilities based on intellectual capacity, like say engineering or physics or chemistry or even mathematics, and not polemics based on the malarkey of a political "science" ilk which is neither useful nor intelligent.
Maybe Miller ought to return to his roots in Belarus. He does not contribute anything of utility here in the US.
7
"Mr. Miller and others around the president. . . have repeatedly demanded implementation of policies that were legally questionable, impractical, unethical or unreasonable."
Millions upon millions of Americans consider it legally questionable, unethical and unreasonable for Congress and prior administration to have tolerated and encouraged what Yale/MIT's nonpartisan, joint analysis estimates is an illegal alien population of between 16.9 million to 28 million in US borders.
Millions upon millions of Americans found it legally questionable, unethical and unreasonable when we learned President Bill Clinton and the DNC took millions of illegal campaign finance dollars from the Chinese, via John Huang, for the 1996 elections, and then, as an alleged quid pro quo, killed the pending immigration reform legislation based on the Jordan Commission (and simultaneously began to lay the groundwork for China's admission to WTO).
Stephen Miller may not be a choir boy but at least he and the Trump administration are willing to recognize, for the first time since the Jordan Commission (aka President Clinton's Bipartisan Commission on Immigration Reform, led by African-American, Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Jordan), that de facto unlimited illegal immigration has negative impacts on millions of Americans, including the least privileged and least skilled US citizens.
7
@GRH If I agreed with you, we would both be wrong.
3
"demanded implementation of policies that were legally questionable, impractical, unethical or unreasonable."
Says who? Denying benefits to illegal immigrants is unethical? Unreasonable?
You folks, and when I say you, i mean Democrats and their cohorts in the media, which includes the Times, are the ones causing this crisis. You advocate, support, and implement sanctuary cities across the country. In those cities you offer drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, instate college tuition, and even free healthcare. You are in effect granting amnesty and/or legal protections for foreigners. You say walls dont work, as we have hundreds of thousands simply walking across the border where there is no walls. Then have the absolute gall to blame Trump because foreigners are swarming at the border in the hundreds of thousands. This is what the Democrat Party has become. theres no denying it. The Party of Open Borders.
15
@Sports Medicine State your own case, do not try to put words in my mouth. Want to see how it feels? This is what the republican party has become, the party of white nationalism. There is no denying it. Seig Heil.
18
@Sports Medicine
Says who? Uh, the Congress of the United States which passes laws, and the courts which adjudicate them. And, really? "hundreds of thousands walking across the border" "...swarming.." That's not the reality of the situation as much as Don the Con has led you to believe.
17
@Sports Medicine Let's add a little more context here and focus on the issues within the control of the federal government. Trump and the Republicans were in complete control for 2 years. It was essentially impossibe to stop them from passing any law they wished to focus on. They spent all their energy on tax reform (passed) and killing Obamacare (failed) while pushing Trump's immigration rants to the back burner. Trump, knowing immigration was still a wedge issue, tweeted and screamed that he needs a wall. Data would show that a huge increase in people approaching the border now are coming now because they're thinking that he'll be successful. This is what will be a crucial factor in 2020.
3
"The purge, they said, was the culmination of months of clashes with Mr. Miller and others around the president who have repeatedly demanded implementation of policies that were legally questionable, impractical, unethical or unreasonable. "
'...and others around the president...' Can we have names for future indictments?
10
Concept: Sue Mr. Miller personally every way imaginable.
12
If you rea this kid's bio on Wikipedia, you find that most of his influences come out of extreme right-wing ideology. He has aligned himself with white supremacist Richard Spencer. Miller claims the turning point in his formative years was a anti-gun control screed by Wayne Lapierre of the NRA. Miller has found a home in the offices of politicians Michelle Bachmann and Jeff Sessions when they were in office.
Miller reminds e of my extreme right-wing nephew, who holds particularly virulent opinions.
Both my nephew and Miller have several things in common - they grew up out of the mainstream and shunned by their peers for their ideologies. They (well at least my nephew) show a severe asocial personality streak, where they are immature, indifferent to the suffering of others, and just as likely to pursue a course regardless of the difficulty it causes others - all in the service of their extreme ideology.
My nephew received no correction from his mother (my sister) instead being allowed to "follow" whatever direction he wanted to, regardless of the immorality of it. Where a reasonable conscience would have developed, none took root in my nephew. That's why I do perceive in Miller what I know makes up my nephew.
And the other commonality - Miller is in politics, and my nephew is attempting to work in national politics. It seems to be the only home for people like the two of them.
12
@liberalnlovinit - I'm guessing Miller was also shunned because he's creepy and unlikeable. He's got all the appeal of moldy oatmeal.
Stephen Miller is about as vile a character as has ever been employed by any administration. And that is saying a lot. He has crossed the line from defending our borders to being outwardly hostile to legal immigrants and those LEGALLY asking for asylum. Anyone defending him as simply working to protect the borders from illegal immigration is not paying attention.
His behavior, as his own uncle pointed out in an op-ed piece, is anti-American. Just like his boss, there is something radically wrong with this man.
17
I know a couple where the wife is a school teacher and the husband a day trader. The wife constantly rails about the need to keep"illegal" immigrant children out of public schools. (Odd concern since they live in a wealthy part of Connecticut). One day while visiting them, they began bragging how much they saved on their new roof by finding a company which used undocumented workers willing to work for lower wages. When I pointed out this apparent contradiction, she seemed completely clueless as to how these two matters were related.
True story! Also, the sad reality of this issue in a nutshell.
16
When I first saw the headline, I expected the end of it to read--"the law." Indeed, Trump has often pushed for policies that are illegal, such as forcing asylum seekers back into Mexico while waiting for their hearings--and his officials have complied until courts forced them to stop.
Mr. Trump's behavior says that he believes himself to be above the law; he is a would-be dictator. We must stop him.
7
The key issue here, it seems to me, is that Miller is both an ideologue and a sociopath. He begins with an unexamined premise that, so it seems to him, any and all immigration, especially if it involves people whose religion is Islam or whose native language is Spanish are inherently bad for America. And he is, he would tell us, all about "making America great again," as it was presumably when the Klan adopted that motto in the xenophobic 1920's and nativists again in the late 1930's and 40's.
He is a small-hearted man with a soft, angry mind who somehow has infiltrated the highest office in the land where what he "thinks" is taken seriously. In a better America he would be bursting his blood vessels on some talk radio hour whose listeners, like himself, need no convincing and are impervious to reason and evidence.
10
In a decidedly fascist turn, the administration has gone from simply ignoring democratic traditions to openly flouting our laws and daring anyone to do something about it.
It is aided and abetted in this venture by an attorney general that believes in an imperial president.
9
We had a bi-partisan immigration deal, and the Republican leaders killed it. Full stop! They are at fault, not the Democrats.
14
This is an incompetent and cruel administration. Its legacy will be children in cages and parents left searching for children taken from them, hidden across the country, and abandoned with no records.
The idea that refugees could be dumped on the streets of sanctuary cities, that there should be illegal limits on asylum, and that human beings are the focus of someone searching for a solution is horrifying.
What did all these Trump officials get for selling their souls? If even worse is inflicted on vulnerable people, there will be trials some day. Crimes against humanity will have witnesses, evidence, and documentation. At that point, the victims will have a voice, not just a who's who in the Trump White House devising cruel solutions for a problem they helped create.
9
Miller reminds me a great deal of Martin Bormann, younger though, and full of hate. May he meet the same fate.
14
What vicious hypocrisy. Trump takes advantage of his own undocumented workers but cruelly prosecutes all others. The fact that a total non-entity like Stephen Miller has a carte blanche to impose such cruelty while Republican congressmen sit on their hands speaks volumes about this wretched administration and its sycophants.
13
You watch. He's going to put Miller in charge, and the incinerators will be constructed.
18
Two years .. no progress .. typical government bureaucracy. Glad to see them trying to sweep away the mechanisms designed to allow illegals easy access to the US. Very much hoping they can achieve some success and then let the ACLU, La Casa and the other pro-illegal groups take it to court. In the meantime, we've got to squeeze the flow from 100,000/month to less than 1,000 if not zero
4
Miller is often referred to as the 33 year senior aide. This isn't about his age. This is about him being a racist with a view of America that is unfortunately shared by a few million to many. We all should stand up to inequities every day so that we don't get to the point where our president and this 33 year old fool seem like they represent the mainstream.
11
Why do we have to support and tolerate white supremacists like Steven Miller who are spitting on the rule of law, hurting legal immigrants and refugees, costing the country far more with illegal imprisonment and family separation, causing churn for Fox News kudos, alienating Democrats and most Americans who can actually remember their immigrant roots, and getting exactly nothing accomplished but more confusion, hatred of the poor and vulnerable, and headlines. Why? Miller should be fired, fined, jailed, and silenced. Ditto his boss. Please vote these evil creatures out in 2020.
11
There will be so many lawsuits against members of this Administration. Extremists.
8
This guy seems like the low-life son Trump always wanted. Hope the get along.
9
@C.L.S.
Seems like?? -- No doubt he is "the low-life son Trump always wanted"...
THAT'S how he got the job, and that's how keeps it.
I realize this may sound gross, and I swear I'm not trying to be. I'm really trying to be kind and fair after following this news very closely: Can't someone find Stephen Miller a woman? Or a man? Someone for him to love? Someone who will listen to him? These are sad, small men in our government. Boys really. Boys with expensive toys like unlimited, unchecked power.
9
@Kim - There are many, many reasons why abortion should remain legal, and that is all I'll say.
1
@kim - I think that ship has sailed a long time ago. Miller is completely unlovable. It wouldn't surprise me if he's unable to find anyone to pay for companionship.
1
I wonder when President Miller will announce his re-election campaign.
3
Stephen, there are many things about the immigration system that are broken.
But you and your boss don't know how the constitution works, how our laws work, who makes the law, who executes it, and don't know what international treaties of which the US is a part commit the US to doing.
I'm sorry if you promised your base things about immigration that aren't legal to do. That's on you. It's your fault that you risk losing your base because they find out you and your boss were a bunch of ignorant liars.
So, now that you know, get your boss, Mr. "Art of the Deal", to go to congress and make a deal. Or was that just an image, with no basis in reality?
While I agree that the US immigration system pretty much allows anyone to stay until they win, and the majority of migrants from Latin America will be net drains to the treasury for at least 2 generations (as is every citizen that makes less than, say, $50,000); my commitment to the law and the constitutional system is more dear. Do you want to know why? Because I may be Trump's next target, and I want the constitution to be there for me.
7
Anything Trump does via Executive Order is only temporary and most likely not legal and will be defeated when tested for cause and complaince in the courts.
Trump and Miller aren't dictators...they are a branch of government. That is what our Democracy requires under the US Constitution.
Either Trump upholds the oath of Office and to honor and defend the US Constitution or he should resign......or be impeached assuming congressioanl Republicans honor their oath and do their jobs!
Yes...we need immigration reform BUT not skin tone based and not how Trump and Miller are defining it. Trump and Miller are NOT America.....Trump lost the vote by over 3 million and he's supported by a lot less than his original vote.
Trump should let the people vote....don't do anything else until the people vote in the next election. We'll call it the McConnell rule.
4
Yes a small minority in Congress are pushing a far left approach. It is non-violent and no threat to me or you.
At the same time our Executive branch of our Federal Government is pushing a far right approach. It is violent, inhumane, very scary and threatening.
How horrible it is that our President has chosen Stephen Miller to manage Homeland Security.
4
It's well documented that Miller was the troublemaker at Santa Monica High School, exposing without apology his blatantly racist, homophobic, mysogenistic beliefs. He was the pariah of the school, shunned by his fellow students in their 2003 graduating class. That he carries so much authority in our government is a travesty beyond words.
7
Nothing and no one is a greater threat to this country and our democracy than Trump & Miller. "Unfit, untrained and unqualified" describe Miller and trump. Fanaticism and the extreme mental state it brings is what is deciding policy for the US. This is dangerous and must end for a country founded on and populated by Immigrants!
6
Of all Trump's "appointees" Miller is perhaps the least qualified for his job. Obviously he was appointed because he shares the same lack of understanding and compassion as his boss. Those that knew Miller at Santa Monica high school say he was the nastiest kid in the school and a real creep. Obviously there's been little change or maturity. Trump's kind of guy.
8
Thank goodness for President Miller, a very bright young ideologue with the necessary backbone and intelligence to truly make America white again. Donnie remains glued to Fox, and while they too are pretty dedicated to making America white again, Donnie just doesn’t have the brains or stamina of young Stephen. You go young Stephen. White America is with you all the way.
Snark.
1
Trump has become the president of perpetual tantrum.
5
The best reason the Democrats have for not impeaching Trump is the total destruction of the Republican Party. He gives a reason to impeach him almost daily.
6
There are comments about Stephen Miller "channeling Trump". Might it be the opposite?
3
To those who spend energy and time treating illegal immigration as "the great issue of our time", and as a crisis (Steve Miller, @sam finn and others), get a life. It's not even close. All this garbage about "controlling and securing the borders", etc. is just that. It's a phony, overblown issue that Trump has used tp keep people like you all riled up. He's playing you all like a violin. Focus your energies and passion on something that's a real major problem, such as climate change and the ongoing assault on our democratic institutions.
4
I agree with alot of the other comments that have been posted, if you want to stop illegal immigrants that badly start fining or prosecuting people who hire them. We're all tired of Republicans whining about illegal immigrants then proceed to hire them as nannies, gardners, farm workers etc. Time to put your money where your mouth is.
5
Why is this man dictating policies when he has no political responsibilities. I know, of course, Trump can only insult. He has no capacity for comprehension of events.
7
The government is run by people who will break the law and disregard the constitution to do their immoral and unethical deeds. We need to watch every move they make or they will continue to break the law that they swore to uphold. We need better protections against their rule of tyranny.
They all need to go away so they can't hurt anyone but themselves.
2
I think Trump should nominate Stephen Miller for DHS Secretary. Might as well make him go through confirmation and hear what he has to say under questioning by the Senate AND make him responsible for the vile nonsense he currently spews out of the public eye. Make him liable and subject to Congressional oversight.
6
Trump needs to win the elections in 2020. He needs Immigration and Wall as front and center.
Tax Cut, bringing back the soldiers and winning wars are done and no longer claimed as why he needs to be elected.
So, expect a lot of talk, which Democrats are helping by resisting change to immigration policies and securing the border. Moderate to conservative DEMS may switch sides on the issue. And there are not a lot of liberal and GOP supporters that Trump fears losing. The ant-immigrant rhetoric is much calmer than the last time where he called Mexicans rapists and murders.
2
Stephen Miller is the Frankenstein Center For Immigration Studies (CIS) and Federation For Immigration Reform (FAIR) created. Is anyone in the NYT looking into how these groups have fueled the current nativist sentiment? If these nefarious leaders distance themselves from Miller then they are truly the mad scientists of our age. Own it, CIS and FAIR!
1
I and others have been talking about 1930s Germany for the last two years, warily for me because it's too much to contemplate, but those comparisons keep bearing out. When Miller was caught on television one Sunday morning a couple of years ago saying sternly that "The president's words shall not be challenged," I knew that we were right to stay vigilant, and become more so. What I see, hear and read about in this article is someone with an agenda that is not normal and psychologically healthy, almost something of the capo, in this case derived from a Jewish family with deep immigrant roots. Donald Trump surrounds himself with dangerous and destructive people. He thrives on them, because there is nothing within, they fill up his void. The comparisons still apply: the constant lying, the bullying and human cruelty, the scapegoating of the other and the disadvantaged, the solid immovable part of the population that eats it up and wears its read uniform, the once vital politicians like McConnell and Barr turned to political garbage, the hypocrites like Pence. At least Miller is not to be misunderstood. Like Sarah Sanders, he is the Dorian Gray of this administration.
6
It's interesting to note that had the immigration policies Steven Miller seeks been in place at the turn of the 20th Century his grandmother, who arrived at Ellis Island as a Yiddish speaking refugee seeking asylum from the pogroms threatening eastern European Jews, would probably have been denied admission.
6
More of the "Trump always surrounds himself with the best, always has, always will" school of thought. Put an impetuous narrow-minded 33-year old in charge of a major government initiative. What can go wrong?!?!
4
The policies for asylum as agreed in the UN is designed to help people at risk of genocide and persecution. This was never meant to help economic migrants who want to better their lives because a particularly country has better social safety nets or better economies.
Every signatory to the 1951 UN convention on refugees won't agree that economic migrants qualify as refugees. In fact each country that has had to process refugee claimants can bar applicants from entry while their applications are being processed. Applicants trying to enter UK from France, were housed in Calais, France while their applications were processed, there is nothing that says that applicants who face no mortal danger in Mexico can wait for years to in the US as their case moves up the queue.
There are legitimate refugees, those in the Middle East or Africa who face genocide because of religious beliefs are also in the queue waiting for their cases to be heard. More than 80% of the south american applicants are found to be economic in nature and do not qualify as refugees. All they do is delay the processing the legitimate refugees who are in real mortal danger not merely economic ones.
In the end, the country should agree on how many immigrants it wants every year, how to set up a fair application process and it needs to stop the loopholes in the law that is allowing 100,000 people to try to get in last month. The debate today is not an honest one until you can agree on a annual number.
2
I want them to do what the president desires unless it is clearly illegal. The ethics of his policies are determined by the voters, if they don't like them they won't vote for him in the future. It is their job to find a way to make them work. If there is some question about them being legal the courts decide that, not employees. He was elected to do things differently, any employee trying to restrain that needs to be fired or leave.
1
The Tax Cut for the Rich took precedent over dealing with the immigration situation (problem) which according to this article dates back the Bush Administration, and beyond.
The problem lies with the President and his cronies up on Capitol Hill, Paul Ryan (now retired), Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell who did nothing while they were in power to change the immigration laws. Trump should have been working on this beginning with his transition team prior to assuming the Presidency.
Let's not overlook the fact that President Trump got his in-laws in under the wire.
Blame the Republican Party for the failure to limit immigration.
6
I have a couple of burning questions: how and why does Stephen Miller have such power over Trump? This mysterious hold appears to be greater than that of any other advisor, and Miller's extreme views are causing Trump so much trouble -- why continue to listen to him?
6
Reading through some of the comments, I feel like I'm experiencing deja vu, the newest spike in hysteria that rises and falls depending on temporal circumstances.
The hyperbole and vitriol is astonishing and bizarre in proportion to a problem that hardly represents the greatest threat to anything, from security to resources to employment. The idea that at this stage of the game our immigration issues can be solved by simply walling off the country, literally or figuratively not only ignores the millions of productive people already assimilated here in limbo, but the reality of our communities, workplaces and economy, particularly the latter.
Mr. Miller is an ideologue, not an expert on anything except perhaps authoritarian posturing by proxy. The few times that he has been allowed to appear in public he has come off as a demented commander of the right flank, not a problem solver. His simplistic, punitive solutions are the pipe dreams of a wanna be tyrant.
For me, a good rule of thumb is if someone has to use absolutism, fear mongering and threats to achieve his or her goals, they have no real or productive function inside a democracy. Such people can achieve a certain measure of success, like Joe McCarthy, but they are inevitably exposed as opportunistic misanthropes projecting their own insane hubris on the country. Only a more bloated, craven and dishonest person would give a lesser poser a branch to stand on.
3
Notwithstanding the legality, propriety or impropriety of any of his actions, Stephen Miller positions and temperament appears to be questionable. Ditto, Trump!
3
There are people who simply cannot perceive the world apart from their own self absorbed perspectives. They cannot see any value in anything but basely selfish pursuits. Miller is such a person. He cannot see any good reason to treat strangers as he would wish to be treated.
3
Finally, someone is getting angry.
When we know that 40% of illegal "immigrants" are visa overstayers, why don't we have a system to track the entry/exit of those holding visas?
When we know that millions of illegal "immigrants" are working illegally, usually with forged Social Security cards and perjured I-9 forms, why haven't we moved to make eVerify mandatory? (So far, only the Red states have moved to do this.)
When we know that many illegal "immigrants" are using forged Social Security cards (our most significant form of personal identification) and filing fraudulent tax returns, why haven't we cracked down on the misuse of Social Security cards and numbers?
When we know that the immigration courts are overwhelmed and have ridiculous processing times, why haven't we moved to re-engineer the processes and add capacity?
And why shouldn't TEMPORARY Protected Status come to an end?
This government demonstrates over and over again that it can't walk and chew gum at the same time.
3
This is NOT reason for asylum or banging on US doors!
"the hundreds of thousands of migrant families from Central America who have surged toward the southwestern border, fleeing violence and poverty."
And I mean it - neither violence, as there is no war anywhere there, nor poverty, as that makes them 'economic' migrants.
If those countries are incapable of taking care of their own yard, then perhaps they should be better off as dominions of USA? I mean, those proud, upright and honorable countries, the citizens of which are fleeing left and right towards USA.
6
@ss In a sense those countries actually WERE dominion of the US, whose large corporate interests bankrupted these central American states both economically and morally. Corruption is ALWAYS good for business. I guess they don't really dive deep into the facts on AM radio.
2
When people on Trump's team stand in the way of his stated policy to stop illegal immigration, which by the way is why he was elected, they must be removed from his team. it is not rocket science. We must stop illegal aliens from coming to and remaining in our country regardless of whether they come across our southern border or overstay their Visas. they are all illegal and they are abusing our immigration laws with the help of the Congress, mostly the democrats, and they seriously dividing our country and draining our treasury. We have over 25 million illegal aliens in our country right now and most of them came here before Trump took office. A systemic failure of our government. First stop new people who try to get into our country illegally and then deal with those that are already here. Simple if there is a will to do that. hard to do when the Democrats are playing politics and showing the American voters they do not care about Americans but just want another sub culture who will be supported by taxpayers so they will get the votes of their anchor babies when they become old enough to vote. And if they paly the cards right and regain significant power they will give amnstey for more votes. .
33
@NYChap : Your comment may well have been said by the Native American Indians when all those people from Europe came storming ashore, raping, robbing, pillaging and murdering those already here from shore to shining shore.
All of our ancestors came here from other places escaping poverty, crime and injustice just like the people from Central America are doing today.
It's too bad the authorities did not send Stephen Millers parents back where ever they came from.
274
So how come your vaunted Republicans didn't change the law while they were in control of Congress and the White House?
Dunno, do you?
But yeah, blame it on the Democrats
L.
360
@NYChap
The democrats have been trying to work with republicans on immigration reform since the Bush 43 administration and through the Obama administration. It was the republicans who kept rejecting any deal because of their intransigent refusal to compromise. Do you remember Trump's famous televised meeting last spring with the democrats? Trump said he'd sign any deal the democrats would bring to the table. He even claimed that he's take the heat. The democrats offered 25 billion for the wall and other border security measures in exchange for DACA protections. But Miller and the freedom caucus were aghast and whispered in his ear. Then, he melted under the heat and reneged. So, this is on Trump, not on the democrats. And by the way, since Trump want and the republicans want to end family reunification, an ironic desire from the party of "family values", when will he repatriate Melania's family?
304
Miller is undermining the values we have as Americans in the civilized world as to our immigration policies. Asylum is a human right and in 1948 we signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in 1967 we signed the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees along with 146 other countries, and in 1980 Congress passed the current law. The United States Refugee Act which recognizes that it has been the historic policy of the United States to respond to the urgent needs of persons subject to persecution in their homelands and to provide assistance, asylum, resettlement opportunities to admitted refugees.
If Trump hadn't hired Miller he perhaps would be still writing white nationalist leaning stories for Breitbar. He stays in the shadows while undermining our immigration policies. As a child of immigrants and descended from a Jewish Holocaust survivor it is unfortunate that he scapegoats immigrants as a pretense to ignore common decency and the law.
19
Trump never considers consequences beyond his immediate purposes. It’s pointless to try to explain why nations honor treaties when they don’t provide immediate advantages, he just will not be able to appreciate it.
3
Donald Trump ran on the issue of illegal immigration that is to say he promised to end it. Why is it so controversial now that he has surrounded himself with anti immigration hardliners such as Stephen Miller and is trying to formulate a workable policy to do as he promised? For the past decade or so the Republican party has genuflected to and even encouraged a cruel racist rhetoric from within the Republican party directed at immigrants with brown and black skin and coming from working class white voters. The Steve King,Jeff Sessions wing of the party has been battling the Bush wing of the Party on this issue for many years. In 2016 the immigration hardliners won and those that were all talk and no real action on border security have now had their bluff called. It is almost a platitude at this point but elections do have consequences. Much of what transpires next in reference to the border will be permanent and cannot be undone. Trump is running for reelection in 2020 and he wants to point at that southern border and say promises kept. Therefore if you hate whats happening or fear what is probably going to happen make voting in the election in 2020 your most important priority.
3
The only reason that the Don is not naming Miller an immigration czar is that a Cabinet member can be forced to testify to Congress while a lowly adviser cannot.
We all know that he is the force behind the misery and de-humanization taking place at the border and Don is only his mouth piece.
15
If the Trump folks are so determined and aggressive on this issue, why aren’t they pursuing penalties for employers?
Seems pretty obvious.
A NYT article last year pointed out that employers can still remit payroll taxes even if their employee doesn’t have a social insurance number and identification. How is that a good idea?
Just as an observer and reader to your north, it would appear that, in the last few decades, employers and politicians of both parties actively tried to make it easier for employers to bring in illegal workers.
9
@Georgia M
Assuming you want some answers:
(1) To work "on the books", all a prospective employee must show is a Social Security or other work authorizing document and complete an I-9 form. Forged versions of the former are available inexpensively and this government makes no effort to police it. Illegal workers perjure themselves to complete the I-9. So, any illegal worker "on the books" will have supplied a number. These are the only ones an employer will withhold taxes for.
(2) Employers hire illegal workers every day and break no laws doing so. If they have done and can show the steps in (1) above, they are completely legal. We need to make the eVerify system mandatory. Today, using it to check out whether documents are legitimate is generally voluntary, though there are a handful of Republican states that have made its use mandatory. California actually passed a state law preventing any jurisdiction in the state making its use mandatory.
Question for you: how does Canada determine whether a worker is legally employable or not? Do you have a national ID card?
3
Stephen Miller is the Martin Shkreli of politics.
19
So a rich California brat turned reactionary conservative to spite his liberal upbringing is running the whole show? I'd find it amusing if so many innocent people weren't being hurt. But now I just find it a pathetic indictment of the utter soullessness of the modern Republican party.
18
"After Miller gave an on-the-record interview to the Times, the White House requested that the Times not publish portions of it on its podcast, The Daily; the Times acceded to the request."
So, what portion of the interview did the Times accede to?
7
Trump has brought in many people and later fired them. I wonder if Steve Miller can count on any friends should Trump fire him.
3
@kagni I wonder how Miller can go anywhere in D.C. unmolested. How much security would such a rotten creature need to be safe?
1
Call Stephen Miller as President Miller sand then sit back and watch Trump fire him.
10
Write comments and complain all you want.
Means nothing.
Unless you VOTE. EVERY SINGE TIME YOU CAN.
Well, then...you don't matter.
If you don't vote, you don't count.
Period.
9
Let s/he among us who is without immigrant forebearers cast the first stone...
9
Mr Trump. This is actually Lou Dobbs writing here. Miller isn't getting the job done. He is a loser and he is weak. Fire him right away and take away his secret service protection and let him get back to his regular, loser life. That will help move things forward.
9
The next Democratic candidate for POTUS should have a campaign slogan "Steven Miller or Me?"
6
Miller has an attitude and smug face that must have made him intensely popular his entire life.
10
@Babel I don't know how he got through high school and college without having his jaw broken on several occasions.
3
This wiil be short. It is a quote from The Most Reverend Desmond Tutu , Archbishop of Cape Town
“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river.".
We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”
And we strip the people upstream of the money to stop them falling in.
7
Apparently, Americans are no longer living in a democracy. A minority of citizens put Trump in office, and he has since taken the reigns and acted as a dictator. Trump is allowing a non elected and not Senate confirmed 33 year old to determine national immigration policy. Trump has installed a biased Attorney General, who has been confirmed by Republican Senators, as the interpreter of federal laws. It is truly a sad day in America. Many of us yearn for the kind of compromise that was urged by President Obama over and over again during his 8 years as president and even since then.
12
We can be grateful that Miller doesn't understand how the government actually works and how his odious goals could be translated into reality without creating chaos or actions easily struck down by the courts. God help us if he ever figures it out.
8
"legally questionable, impractical, unethical or unreasonable"
Kinda sums up the administration in general, let alone Mr Miller and what this article describes.
11
Too young and too much power. History is full of guys like this, who ultimately fail after creating chaos. I expect we'll be cleaning up his messes for a considerable amount of time after he's gone.
8
Dealing with immigration is Trump's primary issue for his base and the coming 2020 election. The shakeups and Mr. Miller's rage is founded on giving that base the raw meat they crave. It is inhumane and destructive and will take years for a successor administration to reverse and straighten out. A comprehensive immigration process and policies is needed, but it can't be done under this administration.
5
Miller is not elected. He is not confirmed. He is not SES. He is not Civil Service. He is not in the military. In short, he is a temporary employee. How has he assumed command of United States domestic policy?
17
It's unlikely we'll agree upon immigration laws and process when we don't have consensus on immigration goals.
2
It's simple, both parties have kicked this challenge down the road for decades.
Those who say Democrats want open borders are flat out lying.
Miller and Trump are clueless. Their solutions are largely illegal and vindictive.
Right now this White House and the GOP are the real problem with just about every issue that faces this country.
4
Big surprise.
Stephen Miller is in charge NOT Donald.
1
The American citizens wanted a dictator as a president, well you elected him and can keep him.
Nepotism is the essence of dictatorship.
As time goes by, he make decisions the USA (corporations and citizens) will have to live with a quite sometime. His so called "corporation repatriation" is a mirage at it's very best.
The only thing this will do is to have consumer goods prices go way over the capacity of US citizens to deal with, so in a short time they will all return to countries in Asia where the salaries are comparable to China.
A nonsense at it's best. Trump does not have a clue how diplomacy and international trade is working. I think we have enough example at this point.
I believe he will be re-elected because of the rampant misinformation going along with his lies.
3
How to address immigration from South of the border for Dummies.
0. Stop winding people up with fear and lies!
1. Explain with specific factual information sans rhetoric what the problem is.
2. Spend time doing #1 and working to convince the population of those facts. (I suspect there is no factual information that shows us immigration is a problem for the country.)
3. Working with Congress whom I assume you have also convinced of your facts design an immigration system for the migrating back and forth farm and other labor to be able to smoothly go on living their legal lives and to prevent illegals whom only want to come here to live better lives but have no legal standing (read that no money to spend on the process) to do so.
4. implement the system.
1
It is my sincerest hope that Stephen Miller will be unemployable once the Trump Administration is history.
6
Let me share some good news--I talked to a friend in Pennsylvania over the weekend who voted for Trump and was a very enthusiastic supporter of his. However, since last fall she's not been so over the top in her support and Sunday she told me that she wouldn't vote for him again, in fact would happily vote for anyone else. She thinks he is a corrupt liar and is taking the U.S. for a ride and lining his pockets as he does it and she is afraid of him and what he is doing to the U.S. So one more voter who has come to their senses. May there be many more.
7
A nation that cannot agree on what It wants to be if and when it grows up to coherent adulthood will remain gripped in dysfunctional, disgraceful adolescence.
2
@Kirk Bready,
Sadly, just like the politicians they elected...
It looks as though Steven Miller is the acting president. I'm surprised president Trump puts up with that. MDC
4
So many virtue-signaling, social justice warriors among the NYT readers, I am turning green.
Please, Mr. Trump, keep purging. I asked you to do it on Tuesday, November 8, 2016.
3
or maybe Americans who have morals and a soul.
1
@Maria C. Purging an agency of experienced, knowledgeable employees and replacing them with incompetent, corrupt ideologues is not beneficial for our country.
1
I wish we did not have to rely on a individual with no background nor experience in immigration law or policy making these monumental decisions. Is it too much to ask to have a bipartisan panel on this issue to tackle the disasters that are before us and start paving ways towards meaningful solutions? Surely, we have the capacity to move beyond breaking news impulsive, great fodder for the nightly cable round table, particularly when the only result has been children in cages. It feels like we are going nowhere. It is sad to think this is the best we can do as a nation, of immigrants.
75
@Sheeba, there was bipartisan panel already. President Clinton's Bipartisan Commission on Immigration Reform, led by African-American, Democratic Congresswoman and civil rights icon Barbara Jordan. It had experts across the spectrum and did hard look at economy & changes from Reagan era weakening of labor unions; predicted impacts from NAFTA, etc. The bipartisan panel recommended chain migration reform; elimination of diversity visa lottery; reduction of legal immigration from what was then around 750,000 per year back down to the 1980's average of 550,000 per year (is now up to 1.3 million per year); increased funding for civil society in Central America; and strengthened enforcement vs illegal immigration, including mandatory E-Verify. It was not considered controversial and was supported by the NY Times, among others. Legislation was being drafted and widely expected to pass when Ms. Jordan tragically died at age 59 or 60 and then Bill Clinton yanked his support, killing the legislation.
Incidentally, Trump supported everything in Jordan Commission for his 1st two years. And not single Democrat has been willing to cross the aisle to support what their former colleague recommended. Only now, after Dems reject Grassley's mandatory E-verify bill based on Jordan Commission; and reject Cotton-Perdue RAISE Act based on Jordan Commission, does Trump start to cut funding to Central America (wrong in my view).
4
@Sheeba There was a meeting some time ago when all the president's proposals were discussed and should have been at least voted upon. Unfortunately nobody had enough guts to do so.
1
Don't you wonder why the Trump administration did not put their policies into action by enacting comprehensive legislation when Republicans controlled Congress?
1
@Gadfly
"Don't you wonder why the Trump administration did not put their policies into action by enacting comprehensive legislation when Republicans controlled Congress?"
That's a very good point, Gadfly. Trump probably believes it benefits him more if he can blame the Democrats when the inane policies on his agenda don't work. He will go down in history as the worst president ever - no question.
And of course Donald 'give me a bigger hammer' Trump thinks that rather than trying to address the root cause of people fleeing terror in their home countries like El Salvador and Guatemala, it would be better to cut off all developmental aid to these countries. The great America Trump wants is one where we dig our heads in the sand and ignore any problems that the rest of the world faces.
12
The problem is not just Donald Trump; it’s the larger conservative political apparatus that makes a conscious decision to collaborate with him.
The Republican Party, as an institution, has become a danger to the rule of law and the integrity of our democracy.
27
I hope Ann Counter or Sean Hannity announces that Stephen Miller is telling Trump what to do, and he is obeying.
Miller would be the next guy out the door.
24
I can’t help but wonder what place in society Stephen Miller believes that he will be afforded, when all is said and done.
Something tells me that this guy is going to be socially radioactive for as long as all memory of him remains.
28
Will Miller he socially radioactive? Far more important question is: how many children will be damaged and abused as a result of his policies, which seem like the large scale, tragic revenge fantasy conjured by a socially radioactive teenager?
5
@Meghan Murphy
Assuming that fascism doesn’t reign supreme, I expect that collaborators will be remembered for the parts that they’ve played.
1
I belong to a home time FB group where typically people post photos of Cambridge or relevant news stories and other people like them. This weekend our Mayor spoke on Fox News about Cambridge's sanctuary policy and stated that we would welcome people. It was as if the roof blew off with arguments and counter-arguments. Today Boston welcomes 30K runners and probably not one person is raging about this "invasion", yet our mayor enrages so many by saying our city will welcome people and help them. I wonder when so many people became so cruel and inhumane and how we turn this around?
11
Easy yes or no question: Do you personally know an "illegal alien?" Yes or No. Another: has an "illegal alien ever harmed you personally?" Yes or No. The emotionally laden attacks on these folk seem to be coming from somewhere beside the writers' personal experiences with them, given that most have none. Given that comprehensive immigration reform has been needed for decades; and that Congress has refused to do their job in that respect; and that the legalities are, therefore, anachronistic and unjust as well, who is being harmed by these retrograde laws? Unjust bad laws ought to be violated in favor of the human and civil rights of all parties.
6
This picture reminds me of a saying I heard during the George Bush years, "all hat no cattle".
Other than Trump himself, Miller is the one person in this administration who hopefully gets the comeuppance he deserves !
13
“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall...”
5
I thought Mr. Miller is one of the folks Mr. Trump described as "Fine People."
5
Wouldn't it be nice if someone could kidnap Mr.S. Miller and exile him to some remote desert island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where presumably he could do no harm? He is a despicable human being and it is sad (to borrow one of Trump's favorite words) that Mr. Miller is able to wield so much power in the White House. Is there no-one in the White House who is willing to tell Miller to "stuff it"?
12
The man behind the curtain, Stephen Miller, latched onto candidate Trump with his eagerness to impose an agenda with a blend of his own nativist philosophy and the President's campaign rhetoric.The result, a mash-up of reactionary, core pleasing pronouncements, ultimatums, a shut-down and firings. These are the failings of people with no coherent discernible plan acting in desperation. This effort to stanch the flow of immigrants has probably accelerated the need potential immigrants feel to leave for the border now. Stephen Miller says the heads of agencies should not sleep until the will of the President through him is done. Quite a pair to draw to.
10
Who elected Stephen Miller to anything?
21
Trump's proposal to release immigrant detainees into sanctuary cities has caused uproar on both sides.
But is it fair to keep doing it the same way we have -- just to release a detainee from the facility, which (usually) means the local border area will be the detainee's new home? Should, say, Brownsville, TX receive a disproportionate number of released immigrant detainees just because Brownsville is close to the border?
I see no justification for releasing detainees only to sanctuary cities/states, but I also see no justification for having border cities (Brownsville, for example) receive a disproportionate share of released detainees. Why shouldn't some released detainees be bused to places away from the border, so that all of us help to absorb them? Why only Brownsville?
5
Why is Stephen Miller so angry?
- By all accounts he had a loving and supportive upbringing.
- He has prospered immensely, ascending to the highest levels of power at a remarkably young age.
- His great-grandparents and grandparents - refugees from Belarus - were welcomed to this country with open arms.
- It appears that he has always enjoyed physical safety, access to food, shelter, and healthcare, and the freedom to speak his mind.
Suffice to say, Stephen Miller is privilege personified, wrapped up in a pouty-faced package.
Why is Stephen Miller so angry?
30
He acts like an angry incel, and perhaps he is.
1
If we are not in favor of open borders, then what should we be doing to stem the tide of the hundreds of thousands of migrants who cross the southern border every year and the hundreds of thousands more who overstay their visas?
Obviously the laws in place are not working, not enforced and blocked by the courts.
So again, if we are not in favor of open borders, what should we be doing to ensure an orderly legal immigration system?
9
Your comments are valid, but perhaps misdirected. The immigration issue has become a political football being used to score points on both sides of the aisle. It’s clear that the system is broken. What’s needed is a humane, sensible bipartisan solution. Compassion shouldn’t mean a free for all and order shouldn’t mean punitive and inhumane policy. Unfortunately, I don’t see a solution coming from our lawmakers anytime soon.
4
@CNNNNC
Your question is valid. I would ask you to consider this scenario:
The head of our government
1) educates himself on the complex and complicated issues surrounding all aspects of immigration,
2) enlists experts and people from affected constituencies for their input, then
3) works with legislators from our major political parties to develop policies that respond in a thoughtful and forward-thinking way to actually improve the situation in a just and lawful manner.
That is how responsible, intelligent government would function.
Let me know how likely you think that process is within our current administration.
21
Reduce the reasons why immigrants are leaving their countries in the first place.
15
Miller and Trump are perfect for each other: they both are entirely void of empathy. They only experience joy when they are berating and bullying others. Their bromance is fed by their hate, bigotry and ignorance of the rule of law. No wonder Miller is one of the last standing original advisors of this administration, except for Trump's family members. And that's a whole different story.
12
This is what happens when you put a young communications guy in charge of policy. He doesn’t have the policy details or network to effect the fantastical changes he promises Trump and Trump turns around and promises his base, so he just falls back to threatening and firing the folks who are actually doing their best to square the illogical circle when this fantasy runs into the brick walls of reality and law.
8
Stephen Miller constitutes the brain of Trump's dimwitted one, cruel to no measure, and likely illegal but certainly immoral. This, from Trump, whose grandfather sought asylum in these United States by denying his German status (Germans were undesirables then); and from Miller, whose family escaped violence at home and was accepted here as well; both hypocrites and cowards who forgot where they came from. The clamor of true victims from Central America now is meeting with deaf ears and a rampant denial of justice in giving asylum to desperate folks, escaping violence at home. Let's not become complicit by 'looking the other way'.
10
How many votes did Stephen Miller receive in the last election?
How many votes did Stephen Miller receive in the Senate when he was nominated to is position?
Miller clearly received the only three votes that matter Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. Aided and abetted by Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin along with the gilded age robber baron malefactors of great wealth at Facebook, Twitter, Google.etc.
No collusion. MAGA
12
Immigration was Trump's carrot to his base, to get him elected. He has failed miserably in formulating a package that revises US immigration law. While holding both chambers of Congress, and the presidency, Trump and the party formerly known as Republican had the opportunity and momentum to make changes. But, they did not want to make changes. They wanted to throw gasoline on the fire, keep immigration as the core issue, and roll it over to 2020.
As for Miller, he's a lost soul. That someone so young should be so consumed with hate, is truly pitiful. He should be out on dates, having fun, being young, and not hanging out plotting evil deeds with Mr. Trump. He will regret throwing away his youth on hatred.
5
So the people whose rallying cry has been, "What part of 'illegal' do you not understand?" are now having to answer for themselves.
4
Only way to solve this problem? Restaurants, Farmers, Hospitals, Corporate Buildings that hire illegal immigrants should be fined and jailed. ESPECIALLY RED STATES FARMERS. They want to have it both way. Hire illegal immigrants and also support trump.
7
Who is this guy? Where did he come from and what is he doing making malicious, cruel policies on behalf of the nation?
I'm not talking about Trump, but "a congressional spokesman", Stephen Miller. Who made him God?
Well, Trump did. Because Trump has no faculty with which to form policy, it's up to Miller to be sure immigrants are arrested and caged, Or get the military and border patrol to put up razor wire or shoot immigrants with tear gas, or generally treat them worse than cattle.
Yes, go after employers who hire undocumented workers. What then? Simple fact is that the undocumented workers are needed. Or they wouldn't be employed. Sometimes for decades. Sometimes starting their own businesses. Raising families, paying taxes, which is something we're not sure Trump or maybe Miller do.
Yes, deport undocumented criminals. But I'd love for somebody to tell me where the harm is in giving Dreamers a path to citizenship.
Where is the harm in those millions of undocumented people, who have lived in the US for many years and contributed, done no harm, committed no crime other than wanting to live?
13
It is interesting that the Trump Administration does not have a rational program to counter the narco-states and gangland and give millions of desperate people a chance to a safe society. Mr. Trump appears to need a devil to draw the angry mob. He seems to relish Stephen Miller's tough guy mentality, failing to realize the damage such policy creates. Eventually the House and Senate will get fed up and demand Miller be dismissed.
5
@David Fairbanks
Here's a more honest answer. For decades, both parties and everyone in the establishment, Hollywood, donor class, agree (for different reasons) that a porous border with no enforcements is a good thing.
Nobody every thought it was a big deal because the people who are actually affected - blue collar workers who face decreasing labor participation and wage stagnation have no power.
The chamber of commerce, the Koch brothers, and everyone in the leadership of the GoP are happy to see undocumented workers come in so that construction, landscaping, unskilled labor can be paid much lower wages.
People like Cesar Chavez were the ones who were taking active steps to protest this porous border, and he was a democrat. You won't find many business owners who want to stop undocumented workers from coming in unless laws are passed so that people who hire undocumented workers face heavy fines, most are afraid that they have to pay higher wages as their competitors still can hire the undocumented workers.
if the laws are enforced everyone will have to obey the laws and trying to pay less to get work done by paying undocumented workers.
1
I guess Miller has forgotten that his race, the Jews, were vilified by the US government in the first half of the 1900's and that many jews fleeing Nazi persecution were denied entry and died in concentration camps. The US policy was that jews were undesirable as immigrants. The US also tried to limit immigration of Poles, Italians, Irish, Chinese, Japanese, and various other races and nationalities. Now he wants to limit legal immigration again for racist reasons but we hide it behind slogans like "we are full" and "they don't send us their best people". As for illegal immigration, he wants to treat them as badly as possible and hope they go away.
10
@felixmk
If you ask the latino construction workers who have legal status as immigrants or citizens if they support more undocumented workers, you will be surprised at what they want.
Today, in California's construction industry, a contractor gets paid about $25 an hour for general work like painting, drywall. Of that $25, $15 goes to the legal worker who are now typically latino because most others have left the industry when they could not compete.
Don't ask the contractors. The contractors when hiring an undocumented worker can pay $10 or $5 and pocket the difference. It also gives the contractor incentive to quote lower hours because he can still get a larger profit even if he pays the undocumented worker to work 20 hours on a 16 hour paid job because the worker is not taking in $15. So the contractor wants undocumented workers and even those who feel moral qualms will be afraid if the competing bids from other contractors will lowball his quote.
Cesar Chavez is not for more illegal workers to come in because he understands how the unionized workers lose bargaining power when forced to compete with a much cheaper labor force.
1
Evil is evil. Abuse of power all around.
24
It is simply astounding that a non elected, smarmy, odious, and highly bigoted character such as this can wield so much power and use it for his machinations almost entirely sub rosa.
Is there no journalistic, legislative, or legal means of getting rid of this jerk?
43
Our wonderful "Christian" administration.
32
@William Green
You got that right. Strangely enough, it all sounds like: "Praise Jesus, Pass the barbed-wire".
Welcome to America.
Stephen Miller is an intellectual thug. He is unfit and unworthy to even visit the White House, let alone work in it. If you like hateful spew and endorse a perverted vision of a dominant super race nazi-esque world (white of course) worthy of a mentally twisted 14 year old - then SM is your boy. Brutal and disgusting. But oh so worthy of our current 1600 Pennsy Ave. occupant. A new low.
36
Good grief. Just what we need. Another toddler in the white house having a temper tantrum because he can't get his way. Because this isn't a dictatorship, as he'd like. But a democracy (sort of) and a nation of laws (for now, anyway). Here's an idea. How about spending the considerable energy required to rant and rave and scheme and accuse and pout and hate on addressing the humanitarian crisis of your own making through legislative action? Oh, right. Because you don't have the legislative support you need to enact your nativist agenda -- even among your own GOP. And lest that become as clear as the fact that you don't have the support of the majority of We, the People, you just stomp your feet and say, "wah, those evil Democrats won't let us have our way", knowing that neither did the GOP when it had majorities in both the House and the Senate. And since when is Stephen Miller's ire relevant to decisions about firing cabinet secretaries and other members of the administration? While the carnival barker in chief was at least elected under the anachronistic electoral college system -- and not by a majority of the people, whom he claims let their wishes be known during the last presidential election (and they did, just not in the ways he claims) -- this angry young man hasn't even been appointed to a Senate confirmed position. Why does anyone take orders from him? Other than, I guess, because he knows what it takes to whip up the base base.
22
@Oscar
I would venture he is something far worse than a toddler in an adult body. His behavior, values, & worldview are those of a psychopath: people are just "things" to him, things to move around and be put out of his way so he might achieve his ends. He is extremely dangerous.
12
I hereby nominate Stephen Miller to head a new Cabinet position/department...The Under Secretary for Anger Management. Ooops...another fail. So young, yet so angry and resentful. The personification of the New American Mean Dream.
20
Miller is the most graphic example of a disturbed political xenophobe in the Trump administration.
For the sake of avoiding litigation I must restrict myself to less inflammatory adjectives when describing Miller.
I leave it to the readers imagination to construct an appropriate indictment of this creature!
18
Illegal, unethical, impractical pretty much is the trump administration
14
Does anyone know what the lapel pin that Stephen Miller is wearing signifies?
3
In two years, Miller won't have a government job. He'll go back to being an ineffectual fringe lunatic.
In the meantime, he'll have fits of rage and berate officials, but he won't be able to change the reality of undocumented immigration.
17
I hear a rumor that high on the list for a new head of Homeland Security is Attila the Hun, and the going slogan is "Hispanics Will Not Replace Us." For "Hispanics" one can substitute "Muslims," "Socialists," "People from S...hole Nations." Not acceptable are "Swedes. "Jews" is acceptable if those carrying the banner are part of the alt-right, but Bibi or Jared cannot be on the placard.
I also hear rumors from the telepathic psychic community that Trump is mulling over whether his belief that he could walk down Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and not lose any support could be extended to walking along the border and doing the same with certain people, since we all know that those men, women and children seeking asylum are the worst of the worst- rapists, murderers, carrying drugs, etc. If anyone can pull it off it is Trump.
Stay tuned.
6
"policies that were legally questionable, impractical, unethical or unreasonable."
Or, all of the above.
Respectfully submitted - GV
9
Will we ever, as Americans, have any moments when we are not embarrassed or ashamed of our so-called "leader"??
I am just sick of all the rigidity and the hate that flows out of a place where hope used to live.
Mr. Trump resides in a place that is so far beyond decency and normalcy that it should scare us all.......And, it has appeared for some time that Mr. Miller is his puppet master......
You settle for empty promises and a carefully marketed fear campaign and allow one party to embrace all that anger and hate.......You show the world how big dreams die.
Immigrants are not our enemy. Those who use them as a prop for their own mental issues are what we should fear. They have already shown us that certain religions are on their list too....Reading lists next?
12
Stephen Miller must be brought out of his dark lair and exposed to the public glare. He's an obnoxious, twisted character with far too much influence.
11
You left out how Fox News plays into this mess. Their anti-immigrant talking heads kill every compromise that comes out of Congress. Trump and Republicans needs to turn off the screechers and haters of Fox News.
11
More fear based mind control from trump.
5
Trump finds it satisfying to beat up on the vulnerable, with migrants an especially enticing target. He can bully, strut, denigrate, spout racist lies, all with impunity and, sadly, to the delight of a frustrated minority of Americans who are eager to find a scapegoat for their own complicated economic problems.
While Trump and his nasty little mini-me, Miller, are only too willing to overlook law, supersede the Constitution and order underlings to perform illegal acts, they are resistant to follow American law and go to Congress to change laws they find irksome. In Congress, in public, they would have to defend their own bigoted fascist impulses and their adoption of extra-legal tactics, and even with a supine Republican majority in the Senate they fear exposing their own ignorance, cruelty, racism and demands for unbridled, unaccountable power.
The Republicans in the Senate, including my own two "representatives", have brought this crisis upon the country by allowing Trump to do whatever he wants to do and determinedly looking away when his instability and stupidity yank the country into chaos and lawlessness.
The question is not where Trump will stop. He won't. The question is when at least 4 Republican senators will stand up and say, "No, Mr. President. You can't do that."
Still waiting.
13
I'd like to ask a question, an obvious one, the elephant in the room.
Why isn't Mr. Stephen Miller appointed to be the 'immigration czar' or the 'Secretary of Homeland Security'?
4
We should all give it a rest
These comments simply strengthen his resolve and reinforce his conviction that he is doing the right thing.
And I get it, we should not remain silent either
A conundrum
1
Legal immigrants, and many illegal as well, come to the US, get jobs and pay taxes. At the very least, they help spur economic growth. Miller, the white nationalist, would cut off welfare benefits in the hope that the immigrants will either leave or not come in the first place, placing a greater tax burden on the middle class, and ironically, Trump's base.
7
The irony is that by publicizing and implementing policies to reduce the flow of immigrants over the Mexican border, it may have resulted in larger numbers of those making the attempt for fear that it might be their last chance to make it to America.
2
Among people I hang out with, being "angry" signals a need for inner spiritual work. Would that Trump and Miller and all their supporters could recognize their own need for such.
Ideally, immigrants would only enter legally. Ideally, American businesses would only hire legal labor, and would pay living wages to all. Ideally, Latin American governments would eliminate their own corruption and dysfunction. Ideally, the capitalist elite would recognize the environmental and social damage they are inflicting on us all and stop doing it. This is not an ideal world.
The larger issues are inequality and exploitation of the poor, in America and around the globe. Miller and Trump, with their infantile "me first" mentalities, are incapable of perceiving or addressing the reality of these systemic injustices.
2
"I Donald J Trump do solemnly swear...to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."
Steven Miller didn't take this oath, but his boss sure did, in front of thousands of people. When are we going to hold him accountable for this failure?
10
I would appreciate if the NY Times and other news outlets would stop referring to such villainous individuals as "architects".
Architects are a distinguished professionals who undergo years of training to design buildings and public spaces for the betterment of our urban environment for all people, not design ways to undermine our country.
7
What is clear here is that Donald Trump’s only reason for his so-called immigration policy is to pander to his base. It’s unfortunate that the heartless and soulless Stephen Miller is a poster boy for that base. I wonder how hard it will be to find rubber-stamp replacements for those already furloughed? Maybe the wunderkind Miller should try to do it all himself as he’s shown his impatience with anyone with any feelings and compassion.
5
Miller is certainly pulling Trump's strings here in a masterful way. And when Trump finds out he is a puppet of Miller, he'll turn on him and fire him most likely, as he doesn't want to be seen as the laughingstock. Miller is certainly dictatorial in his shouting approaching, if the reports are true of his interaction int he situation room, as he clearly does not care at all about international agreements for asylum and human rights , such as providing welfare to children. The others who were fired were 'dragging their feet' because they didn't want to violate the rule of law and basic human rights. Hopefully the sycophants that follow wouldn't kowtow to his will and violate the laws and rights of children just to win an election.
4
Why would anyone want to work for a boss like trump. I await the day when Trump (as he has done to so many) turns on Miller and fires him as well. Watch your back Steve. It's only a matter of time.
3
DT says our country is full, there’s no more room. Anyone who has driven across this very large country knows that is patently absurd. You can drive for days finding only emptiness. Build a new city or cities in that vast emptiness for all these wonderfully industrious people to flock to and rejoice in what they will do. Look what Cubans and Latins have made of once downtrodden Miami.
5
It's clear by now Trump's appointees will not commit illegal acts to appease him and then subject themselves to prosecution.
2
Lawful permanent residents are entitled to benefits by LAW, not regulations. Miller doesn't know, or doesn't care?
6
Sons and grandsons of immigrants opposed to immigration. How ironic it is
But when you think about it, may be if the policy of Stephen Miller would had been apply sooner, the USA would not have to deal with individual like Donald Trump and Stephen Miller, but now it is too late
7
Lets just hope the Trump administration "public servants" continue to fear the laws that hold them in check. With the promise of pardons awaiting those who disregard the law, we've already crossed the threshold to a very dark place.
4
So Stephen Miller goes from "congressional spokesperson" to . . . determining the immigration system for the entire USA? And his qualifications for doing so are . . . being a former "congressional spokesperson"? Seriously?? It sends chills down your spine . . . I am glad to hear there are still administration officials bold enough to stand up to him, though since he has Trump's ear he can hire and fire without impunity, it seems.
Mr. Miller is an unqualified and morally unconscionable person. Trump needs people like Miller to give him a direction and a purpose, otherwise he's just in front of the TV all day and doesn't know what to do about anything. Trump's no ideologue. He just wants to stay on top to further enrich himself and his family.
I would like to see much more of an education campaign concerning the truths of immigration. There is far too much misinformation out there. People still believe that immigrants are taking jobs away from Americans, which is not true and never has been. Immigrants continue to be scapegoated in ways that are un-American and shameful. Yes, our immigration system needs some reform. But not like this.
8
Miller is just plain bad news in every possible way.
8
When a court rules against a Trumpian executive order, the President rails about "unelected judges." Who elected Stephen Miller? Why is the 32-year-old making policy and having people fired?
9
This man Miller is unelected, and unvetted and unaffirmed by the Senate or in fact by anyone else elected other than the President. Congress, including Republicans, need to call this guy before them and they need to put a stop to stealth appointments where the actual person making policy is not the one the Senate reviewed and approved. Congress has a duty to oversee the Department of Homeland Security. When an unelected, unvetted "official" is in a policy-driving position, the shame is on Congress not to stop this absolute violation of our constitutional system. Of course the shame is on the President as well to even try to get away with it; but clearly he will do it until someone stops him. That is the duty of Congress.
4
Countries like Lebanon and Jordon has set up huge refugee camps to deal humanely with the onslaught of fleeing refugees from their surrounding war torn countries. I don’t get why America is so proud. The American Southwest is pretty similar.
Stephen Miller is the poster boy for survival on Trump's Island of Quicksand. He knows where the stepping stones are in the swamp.
But even so, it puzzles me as to how this socially-challenged school kid from Santa Monica rose to a point where he calls shots of national importance - which are usually the preserve of the President. He comes from an educated, intelligent Jewish background, but you'd never come to that conclusion listening to him or knowing he's the architect of a repressive and punitive attack on innocents seeking refuge and a better life for them and their children in the USA...just like his forbearer's did to escape a murderous anti-semitic regime.
Is Miller driving Trump's doctrine or pushing his own barrow? Either way - he's a blight on US compassion for the oppressed.
5
Trump keeps thinking he is running is Mom and Pop real estate operation where bluster, lying, and his fixer attorney's would get the job done---It should be added, that this small business mentality, does not align at all with the kinds of knowledge and skills you need to work within a vast governmental bureaucracy. Even when he fires the heads of these departments, the layers of offices under them will slow, if not totally sabotage, Trump's goals without anyone really knowing who is to blame.
2
Stephen Miller has no right to "demand" anything of anyone.
8
The headline should read:
"Stephen Miller, the Architect of Trump's Failed Immigration Policy"
With the massive chaos, bad press and giant miss-steps initiated by this primary "architect", how is it that Stephen Miller is still standing?
6
Poor Donnie.
He wanted all the attention, and now he has it.
He lives in a goldfish bowl, and his every action and utterance is subject to scrutiny and criticism.
He can't handle criticism.
(You should have thought about that before you made your wish, Donnie.)
Oh, yeah, all the graft and self-dealing is also going to be on the record, and there will be a price for that.
5
“It should be the first thought you have when you wake up. And it should be the last thought you have before you go to bed. And sometimes you shouldn’t go to bed.”
That is someone who is dangerously obsessed, and psychotic.
13
I'll believe this administration is serious about illegal immigration when they go after the greatest culprits -- Canadians who overstay their visas.
Can you imagine a white Canadian child in a cage?
If that image makes you flinch, it should be no different than seeing brown-skinned children in cages.
9
Stephen Miller has been a racist and ethnic reactionary since his days at Santa Monica High School, where he reportedly mocked Hispanic students, and complained about the general upkeep of the place in the school newspaper as his last-ditch way to "stand out" from the laid-back liberals. (I saw the same from Dinesh D'Souza at Dartmouth). This heartless, scowling troll must have been traumatized by the mere presence of an undocumented school janitor to make him the poster boy for Trump's hate, so lacking in empathy for so much of the world's population.
15
Trump and Miller are unable to deal with problems that don’t just go away on their own when they want. The laws are inconvenient because they cannot just be ignored by the President who has taken an oath to enforce the laws but does not like them. That means having to work hard at solving problems which require obeying laws that impose constraints upon what the President may do. Trump and Miller cannot accept that reality to be the reality that they will accept. People have managed to do it for two centuries but these men cannot. That pretty much indicates that they are incompetent fools.
6
I tried talking to two Trump supporters who live in my building---and, yes, this is anecdotal---about some his worst features and it was pointless. Miller and all who stay on in this madhouse are jokes gone bad. The whole administration is a joke gone bad. And so if one has always laughed at the joke and continue to, even as the joke rots, one will not find it no longer funny even when others try to show the joke's shortcomings. Every four years we hear about what a turmoil the country's in. This time the turmoil's louder and eats junk food.
3
Who elected Stephen Miller?
16
When will "business" Republicans realize that while they may have gotten their tax cuts and lossening of regulations, all it takes is one stupid move by Our Dear Leader, like closing the border, to wipe out most,if not all of their gains?
7
Stephen Miller is just a cruel human being.
10
Trump thinks he is above the law and is acting like a dictator trampling the Constitution and demeaning people.
8
So Stephen Miller was furious. Again. This rage filled boy/man is the voice of the anti-immigration movement in this country. I am struck by his rage moments when I think about the measured words spoken yesterday by Pete Buttegiege in South Bend. Both members of the same generation, the difference in ideas and compassion is striking. I too would like to see Miller before the appropriate house committee explaining himself. If I recall he implodes when questioned on weekend talk shows. His apparent self hatred should not be a governing force for our country.
9
Stephen Miller blames asylum seekers for the massive influx of immigrants. What's interesting is that the asylum laws are based on the results of Nazi Germany and those who were fleeing Hitler's purge of non-Germans. Asylum seekers fleeing their countries needed a place to escape from. The US turned away these asylum seekers in the late 1930s and early 1940s back to Europe, where many then died at the hands of Nazis. Stephen Miller is asking us to return the asylum seekers from Central America back to their country, where drug cartel leaders kill those who aren't willing to work or support the drug cartel.
WWII was fought to stop Hitler and the Nazis. Does the UN need to go after Central American dictators to stop the fleeing from their country? Stop the violence in their home country and they won't be fleeing to the US.
8
An important difference between the Nazi regime's and the Trump administration's persecution of their respective scapegoats, has been that laws on the books are still taken seriously by today's officials in the United States.
This article clarifies that the Trump administration's efforts to overthrow the rule of law are ongoing.
6
There is never s shortage of wretched individuals to carry out Trumps immoral demonic plans ..
10
Please stop the use of the word "Architect" when referring to diabolical personalities.
"Architect" refers to people who actually create buildings and Design for humanity, not to someone who tries to bring ruin on society and destroy things.
6
Read the Vanity Fair Magazine profile on Stephen Miller. It will tell you virtually everything you need to know about him. He has not one redeeming quality. Stephen Miller is Trump's Roy Cohn.
12
I did not believe in reincarnation until Stephen Miller, who plainly hosts the soul of Roy Cohn.
8
A comment - apparently made on the internet - asks why there isn't any legislation.
Don't ask the NY Times that question. Use your computer to look up the legislation and then ask the Republicans party - which is the blocking the legislation.
Examples:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/2214
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1857
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/2214
3
It is really uncomfortable to see a man raised in the Jewish faith, push nothing more then White Supremacists values and policies, without shame.
12
These morons are astonished that most people who walk 1,000 miles have legitimate reasons for doing so. The underlying fear has little to do with drugs or gangs. No, this is about racism and the notion that brown people are stealing something from white people
Mr. Miller is a petty little man who should have a job putting chocolate on cherries. We know what we got with Trump.
7
Mr. Miller is pathetic and contemptible and in any other administration he would have been weeded out. His deep seeded antipathy with respect to people of color and in particular Latinos threatens the very foundation of our republic. When the day of reckoning arrives, he will receive his just deserts .
8
Trumps anger is a cancer in our government. Cold, callas, and mean spirited is his trademark. It's getting time to dump Trump.
9
How did Miller’s parents and grand parents get to America? How about Melania and her parents?
9
The Times' attempts to portray efforts to enforce US Sovereignty at our borders as somehow wrongheaded baffles me. The interests of US citizens are placed below unvetted persons violating US law. Why is the Times adopting this odd stance?
6
Let's respect the wishes of the GOP and stop using PC language to describe people: Stephen Miller is a white nationalist who wants to create a white ethnostate.
6
An administration of sycophants and sociopaths -- what could go wrong?
7
So write me some new laws!
#realdonaldtrumpfakepresident
VOTE. For a return to sanity.
8
I think Republican presidents of the current century are more like Milli Vanilli. Remember them? They were the music duo who danced and sang, until it was discovered they weren't actually singing at all, but lip-syncing to other voices. I think George W. Bush danced to the strings of Dick Cheney. I also think Donald Trump is speaking for the voice of the likes of Stephen Miller. I think the strategy of the Republican party is to put up a poster boy as the candidate, and then use him as a puppet to mouth their desires. Why do I think this? Well, to be blunt, I just don't think Trump has the knowledge to come up with most of the nonsense he says. He's being used. So are we.
7
Where is Mitch McConnell?
This President is blatantly ignoring Congress and often federal law while Senate Majority "Leader", McConnell hides in his shell.
It is McConnell's primary constitutional duty to initiate "checks and balances" on the POTUS when this president goes off the rails and refuses to cooperate with Congressional committees.
Someone drag McConnell out of his shell and remind him he works for the American people, not Donald Trump!
11
America is a land of laws. Trump and company are not beyond one of the great hallmarks of the country. Miller will be throwing more tantrums and shedding tears before it's all over.
1
So, Trump should make Stephen Miller head of Homeland Security. Give him a chance to show what a wiz he is.
5
Miller said,
“You ought to be working on this regulation all day every day,” he shouted, as recounted by two participants at the meeting. “It should be the first thought you have when you wake up. And it should be the last thought you have before you go to bed. And sometimes you shouldn’t go to bed.”
Emulating the boss is the only way to survive under Trump. I suspect the biggest compliment from Trump would be, "I couldn't have said it better". If his only desire is to please the boss, Miller's beliefs would be a never mind. Unfortunately he is very serious about pushing his vile agenda and has the ear of Mr Executive Order.
4
And all this from Mr Miller who is shaping and nearly running part of the American presidency while he himself is not even old enough to be one.
4
Trump and Miller should be tried for crimes against humanity. Our immigration laws need to be overhauled but there is no excuse for the Republican Party's support of this so called "president" and his henchmen.
9
If Trump decides to dump asylum seekers in New York, the city should build a tent city to house them on the sidewalk in front of Trump Tower on 5th Avenue.
The asylum seekers should be encouraged to use the restrooms in the building.
4
What's Trump waiting for? Just issue an executive order -- a total and complete ban on Mexicans entering the country and Chief Justice John Roberts and his rightwing colleagues on the Supreme Court will put a national security fig leaf on Trump's malign intent, just like they did with his Muslim travel ban, and uphold it. Just do it, Trump. The Supreme Court has your back.
3
The headline should actually read
"Trump Sees an Obstacle to Getting His Way on Immigration: The Law"
8
It's scary to think of how many other crusading zealots are doing the actual 'governing' while Trump watches TV, plays golf, trolls private citizens on twitter, and travels the globe representing his business first, US interests somewhere down the priority list. Especially if these zealots all suffer from the kind of stunted moral development that Stephen Miller displays in public (can't even imagine what an aggressive dork he is in private).
They're breathtakingly incompetent with respect to understanding their roles within a democratic system of checks and balances. But Miller's incompetence seems more dangerous and damaging in the long-term than, say, DeVos' or Carson's. Although the sum total includes a political war on non-white Americans.
And Miller's shortcomings as a public official or a thoughtful adult with a conscience won't magically be cured by a hat and trooper glasses.
6
“I will criticize that country” if it is “violating basic human rights.” Even Chris Wallace was more compassionate than some comments here.
2
One thing that needs to be mentioned is that when Obama left the White House illegal immigration into the U.S. was at a 40 year low and there were no caravans of asylum seekers crossing the length of Mexico. The present problems at the border have developed entirely on Trump's watch, no doubt in part to Trump's inability to work cooperatively with Mexico in preventing passage of migrants from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador from passing through their country.
5
@W.A. Spitzer
You bring up an excellent point. Want the explanation? The economy was in the tank, recovering slowly from the Great Recession, during the Obama years. The economy is much stronger now, with real labor shortages.
And, wonder of wonders, coincidence of coincidences, it is now that conditions in Central America become intolerable.
2
What drives this kind of hate in someone?
9
@Roy Hill Mirrors?
Again, why does a partisa, uninformed, inexperienced person like Miller, a racist and Bannon cohort, weild so much power? Because our president is too lazy to formulate policies or strategies.
8
Amazing how much this sounds like Harry Potter after the Death Eaters take over the Ministry. The same willful cruelty, the same use of a hammer to smash in a screw, impatience raised to the level of policy. But then, JK Rowling had worked at Amnesty International and seen first-hand how petty tyrannies handle their business.
6
The US has treated Central America as an American colony for over a century. It's time to own up to the consequences of that imperial legacy.
The US must move to a tariff-free common market with all Central American nations and move towards a dramatic increase in the mobility of labor between the US and Central America. We should come up with a renewable six-year work and student visa program starting with about 100,000 visas a year and working up from there.
2
@Paul A Myers "Mobility of labor between the US and Central America" would mean that everybody and their mother would move to the US and drop wages and standard of living down to the Central American standard.
No thanks.
1
A fascinating report in that it provides ample evidence that even under Mr. Trump, the US Government -- for which I worked for nearly 4 decades -- is a slow-moving behemoth that does not respond to the whims of those elected to office.
I predict that this issue will remain unresolved through 2020, by which time Mr. Miller hopefully will have resigned out of sheer frustration.
3
Every day it becomes more apparent that Trump and Miller (who clearly has his hand up Trump's back) are too tightly wrapped and the seams are starting to unravel.
Time to re-watch "The Caine Mutiny", too many similarities to list here but a great guide of what to expect.
18
@peter
Also a Face in the Crowd. How long can a fraud like Trump walk into his rallies wearing suits he had manufactured in his sweatshops overseas and then get cheered for his threats to impose tariffs on the auto industry.
4
I am just appalled at the lack of compassion and the outright hate mongering coming from this administration when they talk about immigration. History is not going to treat kindly this whole shameful episode from the caging of children to the offer of immunity to break the laws of our country to appease a president who only wants to please his base.
25
@Leah: Agree. And as if caging little kids isn't enough, they're actually losing some within the system. Nothing like causing lifelong trauma to kids.
5
If Mr. Miller and/or Mr. Trump don't think things are getting done properly at the border, let Mr. Miller volunteer for the job. He needs some real, hands-on experience instead of his Monday morning quarterback ranting. Mr. Miller, step up to the plate.
9
Stephen Miller may be the single biggest threat to our democracy.
27
@joey
Also, do not forget Trump's AG, Barr, his minions, Nunes, Graham, McCarthy, et al.
2
Tears fill my eyes. What are we becoming as a nation? World history is repeating itself right before our eyes. This administration is dehumanizing anyone who is trying to build a better life here. And getting rid of any official who gets in his way. Stephen Miller is the chief architect of these horrific lawless policies and execution of them. Trump is happy with Miller because Trump is weak and really doesn't have a plan. But Miller and his maniacal ways does.
I thought we were a country who prided itself on doing good or at least trying. Thought we were beginning to learn by our horrific past behaviors and there have been many But the beat goes on. Miller in particular should be ashamed of himself. I know his family is.
As one commenter wrote he needs to be brought in front of Congress and explain why his actions should stand above the laws of our country. He wasn't even elected and his "appointment" was never brought before Congress. Think about it. Insanity.
18
The United State denies millions of legal immigration visa applications per year, but this doesn’t overwhelm the legal immigration system because decisions made by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials are final. Rejected applicants may request reconsideration, but they don’t get court hearings. It is an administrative decision, not a judicial process.
But the system is different for migrants who cross the border illegally. Unlike legal applicants or persons who overstay their visa, illegal border crossers get judicial hearing. This permits then to overwhelm the system
The tsunami of asylum seekers surging across the border overwhelms the system because asylum seekers know they can demand judicial hearings. All but a small percent know their asylum requests will ultimately be rejected, because they do not meet asylum criteria, but this does not deter them. They expect to be be release with notifications to appear at court hearings set three to four years into the future. They call the notifications “permisos” because they entitle bearers to reside and work in the United States until their court hearing date rolls around.They know no one will look for them if they do not appear for their hearings.
We should make asylum an administrative rather than a judicial process. Decisions on asylum request made by Custom and Border Protection officials at the border should be final.
11
@William Case
Are you so sure that some day you might not need refuge somewhere else?
Maybe you haven't been paying attention to the news lately - the climate news especially.
@Concerned Citizen, not to worry, we can all squeeze into Duluth, right? Tearing ourselves apart over where to maybe only temporarily put Central American refugees in America may all be in vain anyway. Since planet earth has no life boats we may just all have to eventually go down with the ship from whatever part we’re on, all trying to scramble to the bow is just academic.
For those who villify the illegality of certain immigrants, be sure to examine who hires immigrants who come here. I was recently in Santa Fe for a wedding and the maid in the expensive place I stayed was from Nicaragua. She spoke only Spanish. Jobs are available throughout the country for immigrants. Here in Texas, you can drive anywhere during the day and on construction sites, many workers are having a lunch and then, perhaps a little siesta. And yet Trump and his bunch disparage and demonize these human beings and their children for attempting to build lives in circumstances he could never imagine in his spoiled upbringing. Miller may be the instrument, but Trump the person behind this foolish impulse to "close" the borders.
4
@Katalina
"... Trump and his bunch disparage and demonize these human beings and their children ".
Red meat to his base. HRC was correct.
4
@Katalina Are those jobs available for legal US workers?
2
@Katalina And the people doing the hiring of Spanish speakers tend over time to only hire people who speak Spanish, discriminating against native born US citizens, especially black ones.
If subornation - inducing - perjury is a crime, isn't suborning other crimes also illegal? Isn't Trump's "ask" of McAleenan, with the promise of a pardon, an abuse of power?
10
"To Mr. Miller and other White House officials, it was another instance in which the law and machinations of government were getting in the way of immigration policy"
Regrettably inserting "Any Trump administration sycophant' for Mr. Miller and "any chaotic whim" for policy would describe the past 700 days...
10
President Trump seems to have no respect for law. It seems he thinks of himself as a King and thinks he has the right to demand people do as he commands. He seems not to understand democracy and the concept of obeying laws. Congress should protect us in the future from having a president who himself would not be able to pass a background check. Congress should put in place a procedure to do background checks for people before they become established in power. So much harm is done to so many people because of failure to check before somebody who doesn't care about democracy becomes the ruler of our country. I fear that Trump is not dedicated to the good of the United States. The news of security violations at his Florida retreat was astonishing. The woman carrying thumb disks loaded with malware being accidently caught by an observing receptionist was remarkable. I wonder if Trump knew in advance. If that malware attempt had succeeded, it possibly could have brought down many chain linked websites of national security computers. Consider the categories of national essential services that might have become corrupted. If Trump is dedicated to Russia instead of the United States this could have been a big turning point in the cyber war. We should not be complacent.
8
"But Mr. Miller remains unsatisfied..." Yeah? Let's keep him that way. He's a menace to America. Trump and his "trusted advisor" have taken GW Bush"s "I am the decider" to a perverse extreme.
Is this performative cruelty or reasoned policy?
What possesses a child of privilege from a family of immigrants to bypass the law and belligerently berate those who are charged with enforcing the law? How is one so bereft of empathy to seek to "deny...benefits to immigrants" or "overturn court-ordered protections for migrant children?"
If "the president has little interest or understanding about how to turn his gut instincts into reality," is that due to arrogance or ignorance?
What qualifications does a 33 year old zealot have, besides being a regressive ideologue, to overturn "rules for...screenings...written into law by Congress?"
This article leaves me with lots of questions, few answers, and intense anger. Let's summon the ghost of Nancy Reagan and "just say no!"
13
If Mr. Miller is setting policy for Homeland Security & Immigration and the department's secretaries are just carrying out his directives, then why is Congress not demanding he come to them & testify?
11
Any politician not advocating for a strict regulation of employers so they don't hire illegals is not worth their salt. Forget democrats vs republicans.
The only deterrent is heavy fines and mandatory prosecution of the business owner. Once this enforcement begins, then institute a proper visa program for laborers and pay them a fair wage. As it stands, the illegal employment is simply a form of modern slavery.
If a politician is not talking about this, they have ZERO interest in solving this problem.
9
@Indisk
e-verify would solve this problem, but somehow it is not a popular idea
3
This is what happens when you have a president who not only hasn't a plan of his own, but who also has the tendency to appoint people who have even less of an idea of what they're doing than he does.
For the record. Stephen Miller is nothing more than a self-righteous right-wing hack who has hitched his star to Donald Trump. He is doing absolutely nothing to eradicate the immigration problem at the border.
And the only thing that shields us from his utter ineptitude is the ineptitude of the man at the top.
15
Stephen Miller and DJT will go to trial in ICC and will be convicted of crimes against humanity, not so diff then those bad dictators or generals.
7
Stephen Miller’s prominent role in conceiving and implementing immigration policy is further proof that Donald Trump is intellectually and emotionally incapable of executing the duties of his office.
Trump’s abject ignorance of legal precedent and his preternatural inability to comprehend legislative processes leaves him no alternative but to defer to ideologues like Miller to achieve his goals.
Meanwhile, McConnell fiddles as America’s standing in the world burns.
11
Everything about this is just wrong. The policy, the lawbreaking, the racist motives and that it is in the hands of a 33 year old with a heart of stone. (the way he can shout at co-workers, presumably way his senior in years is disgraceful also.)
I doubt that S. Miller will change his ways or his hatred of desperate people seeking asylum but at least he could learn some American history and civics so that he would not be promoting all that is against our values as American citizens.
He is dangerous.
6
Stephen Miller's shouting and raving are a symptom of the main disease of the Trump administration: Trump is unable to lead or put together a team to accomplish anything substantive. He is purging his own picks. This reduces American government to a farce.
10
I wonder how Trump or Miller would do if they were left to their own devices in Honduras. You know, just drop them off on a corner and say "Hey, we'll pick you up in a few months." These two have not a whit of empathy between them. Add to that Trump's stunningly complete ineptitude and you have the current situation. There is a problem at the border and Americans, working together, can solve that problem. The related problem, however, is that Trump doesn't work together with anyone. This will only get worse.
6
It seems clear that we can now also conclude that this is a governing pattern that we have seem from Republicans: Bamboozle the country into electing a totally unqualified president and then insert someone who will actually be the person commanding all policy decisions.
We saw this arrangement during the times of Dick Cheney. We now see it again with Pence and Stephen Miller.
What we got in both cases were:
1. An endless war,
2. Endless deficits on the back of endless tax cuts for the very rich,
3. Endless grafting and chaos, and
4. Rogue President determined to love to hate those who didn’t vote for him and to flaunt the law.
5. A corrupt Attorney General, and a rigged Supreme Court of the USA, to uphold a lawless President.
The Arch of Justice is starting to look more like a pretzel to me.
8
It's always fascinated me how willfully oblivious populations of prosperous nations are to the cause and effect of their governments' international policies. Brits angered and baffled by the influx of people from the Middle East, India and Pakistan; the French outraged by Vietnamese, Middle Eastern and North African immigrants; and Americans enraged that Mexicans and Central Americans won't stay where they are, where North American policy has ensured for more than a century that "capitalism," and "free markets" made in its own image reign supreme.
I'm not saying that the governments of these poorer nations are blameless for the miserable states of their people, just that those of us fortunate to live in prosperous countries shouldn't be so god-awful ignorant of how our prosperity is made.
305
@Gustav Aschenbach: To your comment, I will add that people should not be also ignorant of where they are coming from and that the immigrants whom are coming now like their parents and grand parents just want a better life for themselves and their children.
17
@Gustav Aschenbach
Wealthy nations who have used these countries as cheap labor and raw material supply, and often destabilized those countries in the pursuit more riches for their own corporations, are paying the price for their actions. What it leads to with the rise of right-wing, nativist politics remains to be seen. The last time we saw this rise of right wing governments it was WWII.
17
@Gustav Aschenbach, so we are just to resign ourselves to these hapless poorer nations continuing to just stay that way forever? Why then should any place try to better itself knowing this will be its reward? By that then we’ve already borne any responsibility for their plight and the current broken system of immigration is just nature’s natural course. There’s really nothing to fix then for when something is broken it’s broken for a reason.
3
Our government has enacted laws that need to be changed to manage this situation. We need to have laws that are based on fact and need.
Where is any effort to provide legislative relief?
8
@Margo
Any hope for repair or improvement dies in the Senate with McConnell.
1
All of these immigration policies will be reversed the first day of a democratic presidency.
The real concern is that Mr. Trump is taking control of the Secret Service. Who is going to remove Mr. Trump from power once he refuses to abide by the election results in 2020?
6
The "worlds greatest deal-maker" had a stacked deck in his first two years in office and other than the tax cut, couldn't get one significant piece of legislation passed. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. This with Republicans controlling both the House and the Senate. No immigration reform. No infrastructure bill. No better "beautiful" healthcare legislation (other than to repeal the ACA and replace it with nothing). Nothing. Trump has always been a great negotiator when he holds all the cards - "I owe you a lot of money. Finish the job and give me a 40% discount or else I won't pay anything". This was the basis for the "art of the deal". Funny, but the government doesn't quite work that way.
16
The real "obstacle" is the law and Donald Trump's attempt to find someone to violate it for him complete with the promise of a pardon. This is just what you'd expect from "Individual-1" and should be added to the list of articles of impeachment if Trump continues to toss aside the Constitution and Congress, at least the House, finally says, "Enough is enough!"
4
We will all know what the Monster actually is that we have created when all of this sorry mess ends up in the hands of the Supreme Court to adjudicate.
It seems very obvious that this President and Stephen Miller are not concerned at all about disobeying Court Mandated Orders; or anything that other co-equal branches of Government do to check them.
When the Supreme Court hands down an opinion on the many cases now navigating the court systems, and ones to come from Congress, we will know the extend of the debacle we are.
9
Let's be clear about this. Is it really Trump pressuring Miller, or is Miller putting the pressure on while Trump supports it?
Remember, Trump was ready to sign a bill exchanging billions in border security, in exchange for DACA, about 200 years ago, until Miller and the "freedom" caucus changed his mind.
5
Let's face it: we already have the foundations of a dictatorship, being implemented by what used to be Republicans.
This policy example is just one of thousands that are being implemented to provide new laws or work arounds, to deny basic human rights.
Its not just immigration, but basic rights for existing citizens, such as voting.
The GOP is removing nonGOP voters via gerrymandering, purging registered voters, limiting polling locations and hours, and opposing registering new eligible voters.
Democracy may not survive the next 2 years.
6
Mr. Trump told Mr. McAleenan that he would pardon him if he ran into any legal problems, according to officials familiar with the conversation
If you break the law, I will pardon you, the president strongly inferred. The president encourages law-breaking. The president. Of the United States.
2
Where's Mitch? Where's the condemnation of Miller (and Trump) from the GOP members of Congress?
Picking on real people who are fleeing conditions so bad that they're willing to risk everything is not who we are as a people.
5
@Javaforce
Where's Mitch? That's exactly the point -- He's nowhere to be seen or heard because he's too busy nursing his chances for reelection next year.
2
The most colossal policy mess in this nation's history. I suppose we're lucky that it's entirely unnecessary.
5
Trump is doing a great job of boxing the Democrats in and laying a foundation for the next election. Trump says there’s an emergency at the southern border and money must be spent to reduce the problem. Democrats claim that there’s no problem and the 100,000 plus persons entering the USA are fine with them and offer neither money nor a solution. (Please ignore the recent Times article that says that there is a problem.) Trump offers to provide a path to citizenship for dreamers and Democrats turn it down. Trump “considers” moving those persons who have recently arrived in the US to places where they can mingle with others who speak their language, where there are good local and state benefits, and where local law enforcement will not provide help to ICE. Democrats who control these Sanctuary Cities object to this possibility but offer no alternatives. Democrats are saying “We want them in the US but not in our backyard “. Maybe Trump’s next move will be strictly enforcing rules that employers provide documents showing that the persons hired are citizens or have a legal right to be in the US. Then millions of non citizens who are working for substandard wages will become unemployed and roam the streets. I wonder what they will do to get money.
6
@Richard Winchester
e-verify would eliminate most of the problems, except for the asylum seekers.
Not only there is no clear guidance, and policy, the manner in which the civil servants tasked to perform their jobs are being treated, is so very disgraceful. What is more appalling is to see these political appointees who have no idea what these Agencies stand for and their responsibilities, giving orders to professionals who have spent their lives on their jobs.
The political appointees are insulting and disparaging the professionals at the agencies charged to handle immigration. This is because, they refuse to carry out orders that go against the law. It is time for Congress to step in and conduct an investigation over the behavior of these political appointees. Importantly, have them removed from their positions. They pose a real threat to our democratic institutions.
These career civil servants have spent valuable time to help formulate and execute policies. They have contributed to developing and growing the agencies they have been entrusted with. Politicians and their appointees, come and go. The civil servants continue to be on their jobs, and they deserve the public support and proper safeguards to their job security. And, not allowed to be trampled by misguided and reckless political interference.
The problem with implementing our immigration laws is that they are sabotaged by the very people who are in charge of implementing them and without due process. It is squarely wrong. I cannot blame the president for firing any official who takes matters into his/her own hands. It is starting to make to make total sense. The progressives and the Dems are loosing on this one issue. We are not dealing with iffy washy emotions we are dealing with laws that are broken left and right. This is a constitutional issue that should be confronted head on.
5
Trump is an intellectual empty zone but he does read his base very well. When they want something he will try to give it to them. But he never wants to expend energy on anything except being the center of attention. He wants most problems that he comes upon to be quick resolved upon his command, by others. He does not want the details told to him, his mind just gets confused by them. It’s like he’s a visitor at an expensive resort who just orders what he wants and lies back while he’s served by an obedient staff.
3
I don't remember ever seeing Steven Miller on any election ballot. Yet he seems to run the show, the man behind the curtain. What's wrong with this picture?
1
'Mr. Trump insisted in a tweet on Saturday that he was “not frustrated” by the situation at the border, where for months he has said there is a crisis that threatens the nation’s security.'
He's not frustrated by a crisis threatening national security? He doesn't deserve to be President.
2
Miller's plans to have water run uphill, and power cars with perpetual motion machines, haven't been realized, either.
3
This administration is proposing rules and legislation and rule breaking from a hatred of those seeking asylum and a new life in this country. It is pretty clear that Miller and the president are petulant little boys who don't understand the inner workings of government. Legislation and rules are meant to take time in order to work out the fine points of the law and to make sure that they are legal. Here both see a system that they claim is hampering their grand ideas and corrective measures to save our country. What they propose are illegal and morally wrong. To offer a pardon to someone in the agency to break the law is despicable. At some point the Republicans in Congress are going to have to say enough, stop these two and propose some meaningful legislation.
2
@MLucero, new life? Like reincarnation? How is that fair to those struggling to make their old one work? Maybe if we only just got one we’d learn how to take better care of it.
Trump removes staff that resist his order they break the law.
Putin doesn't have to do that because Putin IS the law.
The only barriers to Trump tyranny are judges and congress. With McConnell bending to Trump's will and the Supreme Court in danger of also bowing to tyranny, we are at a precarious crossroads.
4
Remember Robert Shaw as Quint in "Jaws" describing the look of a shark's eyes? Think Stephen Miller.
1
I don't know about others, but when I have the slightest infractions of minor traffic laws, for instance, I instantly get pulled over by angry police giving me points on my record or lecturing me about laws and regulations. What makes you think that people committing much more serious offenses such as illegally claiming asylum (they should have done it in Mexico but they purposely trespassed into the US) or disappearing into society and ignoring their follow-up proceedings should just be "forgotten about" or given amnesty? Try just stoppping too close to the curb or running a red light to see what happens, and here we're talking about premeditated caravans abusing the US immigration system with impunity, whether it's the coyotes or the actual migrants who also bear some responsibility.
8
The welfare benefits for claimants (80%this + of which are eventually rejected after 3-5 yrs in the system) is certainly something the nation should have a conversation about.
But even more problematic is that (1) the refugee claimant system is being used as a temporary worker program and (2) children are being exploited to help unrelated adults to get released. There are immediate small laws that can be passed to prevent unrelated children being used to facilitate smuggling claimants across the border.
Congress can and should plug this loophole with heavy penalties on anyone in the supply chain of renting out children for purposes of trafficking adults across the border. DNA tests can clearly distinguish between real families and fake ones.
As for the temp worker aspect. In a time of record low unemployment, it makes sense to introduce temporary worker visas to help industries who truly have difficulty hiring workers --- but this should not apply to industries that have refused to increase wages. Maybe people don't want to fill your open reqs because you are not paying competitive wages, and temp workers are not the answer when it's purely a wage-control issue.
10
DNA tests would fail to identify family relationships created by adoption, whether formal legal ones or virtual ones. You are viewing the reality of children ‘s lives mechanistically. Life and human rights are more complicated than you are allowing for.
@Paul Dobbs I'm sure we can figure out the exceptions to the rules.
Watch Mexico say that they need to build a wall at the southern border and wants Trump to pay for the wall. Seriously though, I think that using bar codes assigned to families, as well as placing them in areas of America where help is needed, i.e. dairy farmers, etc would help those industries, as well as, knowing where the families are located within America. Special ID's could be used to distinguish who they are, and local law enforcement, and ICE would have more control over them, as well as the courts.
6
@Dan O I've never understood why, after realizing the separated minor problem, the government did look to the companies that provide the matching id bracelets to hospital nurseries to keep track of the kids. It would need a little tech behind it, but come on.
2
@Dan O
Good grief. Right now detainees are getting $1/day for working - so they can be released to slave labor from the prisons they've been put in.
I'm surprised Trump and his fans aren't contemplating selling them on an auction block.
1
@PaulinVA
DNA testing, a database of each claimant can resolve this. Unrelated adults crossing with children can be flagged immediately.
Also, incidents of children who cross repeatedly as they are rented to groups can be stopped with DNA matching.
1
Shouldn’t they be working day and night to reunite the families separated at the border? That should be priority 1, but it appears to have been swept under the rug. Private organizations might have to take on that urgent and difficult task with outreach to the places the parents may have been returned to.
15
@Namcy Kelleher Private companies are making lots of money if of the government for housing these children.
3
@Namcy Kelleher
Some of those children were rented regularly to help facilitate crossings, the children go back to Mexico or other areas to help new crossings.
A DNA test for each person can quickly sort out who the real families are and which ones include unrelated children supplied by this lucrative new industry at the borders.
As long as Mitch McConnell blocks ANYTHING coming to the floor that Democrats propose, nothing will change. Republicans should have passed something when they had the chance.
25
@dogtrnr12
Isn't it obvious? The donor class and captains of industry historically have no interest in stopping the flow of cheaper workers. Koch brothers and Soros inc have a common goal when it comes to the immigration system. The chambers of commerce are shouting today that wage pressures are too high and that they need to stop wage increases instead of cheering when new blue collar workers finally get some bargaining powers in asking for wage increases.
What Trump is doing is 'pandering' to the Main Street voters who have historically had zero power other than their votes. His message is being attacked at all times by a unified front of resistance by traditional supporters of both parties. Anyone who depends on the donor class will not be able to go along with this.
1
McConnell feels like the Prince of Darkness here. I don't understand what percentage there is for him as in his immoral, unethical, imperious and actually bizarre behavior. Was he always like this? I have heard that he may not run for re-election just as Paul Ryan chose not to. McConnell is leading himself (and not his party) over a career cliff. Paul Ryan is warming up in the dugout in case Trump stumbles (is jailed etc) as a candidate in 2020. But surely McConnell doesn't have eyes on the presidency. Please, someone, please explain this to me. Or is it as it seems, inexplicable?
Please remember: These are not asylum laws. They are asylum TREATIES, that supersede US laws and are 2nd behind the Constitution as law-of-the-land.
Miller would like to treat our asylum obligations like some sort of cornball regulations thrown up by a bureaucrat, instead of a serious international obligation.
Our government did not think ahead to this day; when they were busy suppressing Central American democratic movements so that US Corporations could fully exploit the people and resources without legal inconveniences. That is why these people are fleeing to here. We denied them any heritage of democracy and decent government.
We signed those asylum treaties precisely to help people like that.
32
Thank you for reminding us how our past actions in Central America have helped create the present situation. In addition to stealing the region's assets, we provided the Contras guns that have inspire fear and violence. It is a sad a story. We need to make amends for the last century of exploration, beginning with asylum and reparations.
2
@huckleberry muckelroy
Refugess laws all over the world doesn't specify that claimants have to wait for their hearings inside th target country. Once they are out of their home country where the alleged danger resides, they can wait in any other country that is not a threat to them.
Using refugee treaties to attempt to bypass immigration laws is an abuse of the refugee laws. These were created to help those at risk of execution or genocide or otherwise real dangers. Today, about 85% of the claims are eventually rejected years later. Even when reporters go to interview these refugee claimants, very often you understand they were in no such danger at home - it's the wealth of the US that drives them to leave their homes.
The vast majority of the claims are NOT refugee cases - the numbers are clear. Clogging up the refugees process with fake cases increases the backlog of real refugees and cause unnecessary hardship to the legitimate cases. This is not fair to those who apply legally and the real refugees.
7
Neither Trump nor Miller understand that we have a government of laws not rule by whomever is holding the office of President. They are willful but unintelligent people.
Nothing more gratifying than hearing that Stephen Miller threw away $80 worth of sushi after being flipped off by a bartender in the street.
Keep up the good work, citizens of DC.
35
It is hard not to wonder what if Frederick Trump was not allowed to come to the United States back in 1885. We would have had a different 45th president!
Imagine that! Wouldn't life have been much better for all, including the supporters of 45?
13
I listened to a panel of political experts over the weekend who explained that both the democrats and republicans were ready to legislate together on the border issue and that it was a simple deal that would only take a couple of days. What is getting in the way is Donald Trump. Of couse he doesn't want the issue resolved so that he can use it to get re-elected. In other words, he doesn't care about the lives of either American citizens or the migrants. They are just pawns for him. I guess monstrous is the only world that I can think of to describe this.
36
@Barry Lane
No doubt both parties are going to spin this all the way to 2020.
The immigration debate is a dishonest one. A vast majority of voters agree the country wants immigrants to come in. The real debate should be : how many in each year and how to make the process a transparent and fair one everyone can be proud of.
Today 1M-1.5M new immigrants are accepted each year. This happens and will continue regardless of what Trump or Obama or Bush have been saying. People should agree on a quota for what is the number that the country annually can accept for the next 10 years and revise the number every 5 years or so.
At the southern border entries, you now have a situation where the numbers are so large that not only are holding beds full, the beds of volunteer charity groups are also full. An obvious humanitarian solution exists - sanctuary cities typically are wealthier than the border towns and can easily accommodate the 100,000+ people that will cross every month. If 10 sanctuary cities each agree to take in 10,000 people each month, we can alleviate the humanitarian disaster.
The mayors of these sanctuary cities should come out and come out with the numbers of people they can each take and the border agents can arrange for buses to take the refugee claimants. In fact, longer term, when their refugee hearings come up. it should be setup at the sanctuary cities.
This is a win-win for everyone. Why aren't the mayors volunteering the numbers?
2
It's not Trump, it's Fox News.
Why doesn't the media ask Republicans why the border problem has become worse, not better since Trump became president?
Why doesn't the media ask Republicans how a president who demands that the law be ignored is not committing a high crime?
Why doesn't the media point out that Trump has properties in sanctuary cities that use undocumented labor, so Trump is probably trying to increase his supply of undocumented labor?
Why doesn't the media ask Republicans every day how a president that repeatedly takes the side of a hostile intelligence agency against U.S. intelligence agencies, by saying they are right and U.S. national security officials agencies are wrong is not committing treason? If George Bush took the side of the Republican National Guard against the U.S. Military in the middle of the Iraq War, that would be treason wouldn't it? U.S. and Russian intelligence have been in a deadly secret war for over sixty years. How is taking their side in that war, while they attack are electoral systems, by hacking state attorney general's offices, voter rolls and vendors of electoral hardware and software, not treason? Why is the media so eager to believe Barr, instead of pointing out the treasonous elephant in the room?
Trump accused Democrats of treason for not clapping at his speech, but we can't point out that Trump is literally siding with the enemy?
23
@McGloin
Lets ask a rhetorical question. What happened with the Iraq WMD assessment? Did people who made that assessment every answer for this mistake?
it is possible that the management class of the intelligence agencies have been atrophied because of an ingrained culture of ineptitude and lack of accountability?
Lets be very clear here - this is not an issue of the rank and file of the real workers, but a question about who is the class of management that has been running the agencies?
In the private sector, inept management eventually either get fired or the companies they are in eventually go under due to the accumulated ineptitudes. Is this happening at the intelligence agencies?
Of course I understand that there are dangerous enemies outside and you need a strong intelligence community to fight against outside forces, but why is it that people like Brennan, Clapper and Come able to rise to such leadership positions when it is so blatantly obvious to anyone who has ever interviewed any job applicant that these people are functioning several levels below their last held pay-grades?
1
Trump needs to tell his base that the things he promised he would do on immigration are illegal. This is one of many problems with rookies running for office.
17
This whole article reminds me of what it means to keep hitting one's head against a brick wall despite pain to the head.
We are, or were, a nation of laws. I find it incredibly unbelievable that only Democrats are bothered by a president who refuses to enforce laws, asks his underlings to break them for him, and shows such disrespect for anyone or anything that gets in his way.
The fact a 33-year old zealot has as much power as he has in a nation which allegedly aspires to greatness would be unbelievable if written in a movie plot.
About the only thing that Miller and Trump haven't tried quite yet, is actual physical violence against asylum seekers. I hesitated to write that word, "yet," although this is unfortunately where we are.
18
@christineMcM The Republicans have gone power mad. They no longer care about things like laws, ethics, duty, or the Constitution.
3
After the atrocities committed by this administration I think we need to resolve on a new slogan: Never forget, never forgive.
13
It is not just immigration officials who are standing in trump's climb to power. Congress is now having second thoughts about supporting him.
I agree with Scott Fordin...under Bush & Obama illegal crossings were declining. Why are they going up under trump? Who is paying to help all these immigrants to get to the border? Who is going down to Central America with money & promises of asylum? It is not just smugglers, there is someone in power behind this surge. Who can it be? Someone who wants trump reelected in 2020 for his hard stance on immigration?
4
@Nostradamus Said So - There's no evidence whatsoever that anyone is paying for migrants to come to the border. That's a rightwing talking point. Investigative journalists are on top of this and they've found no evidence.
1
Most people around Trump continue to be fired. His unstable nature and uncontrolled temper compels him to blame others for his own ineptness. Basically he doesn't deserve to be President. What's baffling GOP chooses to ignore all his wrongdoings knowing the country will eventually have to pay a stupendous price for all his the choas he has caused.. He may continue to fire many more of his stuff and find new ones to replace them, but he will never restore this country to its former glory.
9
One aspect around immigration that is rarely acknowledged is how the present form of American capitalism exploits undocumented people. We often hear the refrain that immigrants do jobs "Americans won't do" without stopping to think why- it's because those jobs are often labor intensive and low paid. Yet, the economy of our country would collapse without that labor. It is essential. All labor must be paid a fair and livable wage, and also be protected against exploitation in a shadow economy.
I don't like the idea of anyone in this country being exploited so that we can have lower prices on some consumer goods and services. I also find it ridiculous that immigrants and migrants, documented or not, bear the brunt of societal blame while the business owners who gladly exploit their labor, and profit greatly from it, are never mentioned.
The reality of our immigration debate does not start and stop at our borders, but continues internally as well.
441
@Dominic
Not just documented workers but workers on legal work visa are also exploited by capitalistic companies.
Seems immigration system has been designed by companies not government.
No developed countries other than middle eastern countries have such a restrictive work visa system as
27
@Dominic, Republicans have consistently opposed nationwide, mandatory implementation of eVerify for the very reasons you cite. They talk a tough line about immigration, but they prosper on the backs of that cheap, often illegal, underpaid immigrant labor.
Right now, there are too few workers for vacancies in a number of jobs, including all sorts of IT positions (fixing wires, not writing code), which could be filled with people willing to accept an entry level salary to train into a better job.
These positions have always been a lure to immigrants and we had better hope that continues because our demographics make us into another Japan (more people over 65 than under 18) by 2035. Without young immigrants willing to work in our nation, our economy will falter.
42
@Dominic
Agree, but it's not just immigrants, it's existing citizens
with legal jobs that now border on slave labor.
Wages are so low,that people working full time can't afford an apartment.
The GOP wants the lower wage earners to have little to no health care coverage. It wants women to have no affordable access to birth control, or to affordable child care, so that they can hold a job.
They are tying to loosen safety laws. The new gilded age is here.
48
Trump’s anger is deeper than the border or the people trying to enter the U.S. Trump’s furious that he can’t get his way. One of the many promises regarding immigration reform to his base of supporters is not coming to fruition making him look bad and from the looks of it; Trump is willing to do anything to fulfill that promise even circumventing U.S. laws. The irony of it all is that he uses others to do his dirty work and gets rid of them if they don’t. If his entire administration and his complicit GOP stood up to him instead of cowering perhaps maybe there would have been a compromise. However, with Trump there are no compromises, it’s all about him.
289
@A.A.F. No, it's all about being the elected President. In my 23-years of federal service with several agencies, I never forgot that the bureaucracy's job was to implement the will of the Administration, within the limits of the law. If federal workers cannot do that they need to quit or be fired. Incidentally, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan is a federal bureaucrat par excellence, having been awarded the Presidential Rank Award, the highest civil service award in the United States.
4
@Donald Champagne
"I never forgot that the bureaucracy's job was to implement the will of the Administration, within the limits of the law. "
Depending on your agency, that should have been the will of Congress or "the will of the Administration, within the limits of the law".
The key phrase here is "within the limits of the law". Knowledge of the law and its limits are lacking in the current administration, and people such as Messrs. Trump and Miller seem to revel in it.
24
@A.A.F. Mr. Trump's isn't furious that he can't get his way; he is using tantrums strategically, as he always has, and he is getting his way. And there is nothing ironic about his technique of pressuring underlings to break laws; he gets the laws broken and willful dimwits like Mr. Barr proclaim that he himself has not broken any laws.
16
A terrible manager generally blames their subordinates. It's commonly seen and on full display with the complete failure of leadership from the Oval Office.
25
Everyday the rule of law dies a little in this country.
But Republicans could care less. Republicans in Congress got tax cuts for rich people and judges who will implement Evangelical Sharia Law. The base is happy because they have President who hates pepper of color as much as they do.
The problem isn’t Trump. The problem is the Republican Party. The Party and its ignorance, racism, and greed will be the death of this country.
The only path forward to break this country up. As a blue state resident, I’d rather be Canadian than live in the Evangelical theocracy and apartheid state that bigots of the Christian Family Values Party want to build.
17
As has been and continues to be: trump is frustrated because no one will break the law for him. The trump crime family must be banished from government in 2020. Vote this guy out!
20
Say what you will this is simply another example of incompetent people struggling to realize their radical, hate-based xenophobia. Rather than seeking to find a gentle and humane solution, or to design remedies that get to the heart of the problem, they lash out with cruelty and ham-fisted anger.
The only "emergency at the border" is the swamp-fever that's infected the White House.
10
Does the arrogant, misanthropic Miller not realize that those numerous Administration employees whom he routinely denigrates have available avenues to effectively strike back against him, primarily through constant leaks of embarrassing information to the press? Does he also not appreciate that the time will inevitably come when his current "protector" will scapegoat him, as he does with all others, and throw this discardable personal "servant" under the ever-churning wheels of the Trumpian Bus? The end of Miller's tenuous tenure as the Fake President's loyal poodle will undoubtedly be cheered and toasted by many!
10
Charity begins at home and spreads abroad. Perhaps things would be different if Mr. Trump began clearing his own house.
If it weren't for illegal immigrants Trump would not have had at least two of his wives, and if not for Chain Migration, his current wife's family would not be here.
With regard to Miller, he is nothing but a professional right-wing troll who should not be anywhere near the reins of power. Completely and utterly unqualified.
9
Trump's worsi enemy to everything he tries to do is his own vile rhetoric whether by mouth or Twitter. Doesn't he realize that his adolescent behavior turns off all but his deluded "base" who make up only about a third of the country. He has not had the majority of Americans' support since he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in 2016 and, he will not gain any more support with his childish behavior.
4
@RLW. He isn’t his own worst enemy as long as I’M alive!
"Build The Wall" was NOT a Campaign Promise.
It was a Campaign Chant, it was never a Promise.
It was designed to fire up the crowds at the Trump Rally's, and to make the Rally's entertaining.
Without entertainment the crowds would not continue to show up, and without the cheering crowds Trump would not get the attention that he so desperately craves.
After the Rally's, Trump would completely forget about the Wall nonsense, until it was time for the next Rally.
After the election, building a Wall was the farthest thing from Trump's little mind.
He even told the President of Mexico during a phone call that he had no intention of building any stupid Wall, but that he just didn't want the Mexican President to keep talking about it.
It was Bannon and Stephen Miller that kept pushing Trump to keep preaching about this Wall thing.
They manipulated him into believing that his cheering crowds would abandon him, if he didn't keep dwelling on the Wall and Immigration.
It was not difficult to manipulate Trump, since attention is the one thing that he desires most in life.
What Stephen Miller desires, is an altogether different matter.
6
YES! Drain the Swamp, Mr. President.
It's why we hired you.
4
the people did NOT "hire"/elect him, remember most people voted for Clinton.
4
@Norman Rogers. Ummm, Gee, Norman, I don’t know if you’ve noticed (apparently not): Himself IS The Swamp. But I certainly agree that It and Its entire cabinet need to be drained - straight into Federal prison.
3
It appears that Trump is creating a far bigger swamp with his lack of civil engineering skills, or skills in general. The immorality, anti democratic, anti rule of law, and downright corrupt behavior of Trump and his followers is frightening.
A more apt headline would have been: “Trump Sees Obstacle to his Immigration Plans: The Constitution and Our Laws”.
7
I have been horrified that Steven Miller has the presidents ear. This is a cruel vindictive man. Separating families is surely the work of this person. Steven Miller is the face of evil (seriously! Just look at him)
9
We need our hero to release the Mueller Report and the taxes.... we know you are out there...what are you waiting for .... every destructive move this administration makes will take years if not generations to rebuild..... not one more day can this go on
4
What qualifications does Miller have to be this "Power Behind The Throne"?
The same that Bannon had?
The same that Jared has?
What is there about these three men-boyz that brings a smile to Trumps face?
New York Times: Please do an article "comparing and contrasting" the qualifications of them, because I don't see the pull.
What are their education qualifications?
What awards have they ever received?
What organizations are they members of that can recommend them?
In fact, who DID recommend them to Trump?
They say, "You can't fix stupid", but, of course you can.
It's called "education", and I want to know exactly how much this bunch has had.
4
Someone remind me what was so wrong about HRC calling these people a basket of deplorables.
This smug punk is so evil that the qualified governmental officials don't want to do what he says. And he is central casting for an overprivileged brat: Have you seen the video of him giving a speech saying he shouldn't have to pick up his own trash because that's what janitors are for? You literally could not make this up.
And Stephen Miller doesn't look like a pure member of a Native American tribe to me. What is his moral authority for being cruel?
And supporting this incompetent clown car of racists is what Jesus would do? Seriously, the Evangelical so-called "Christians" think that?
What dark times we live in.
10
The biggest obstacle to anything Trump tries to do, is Donald Trump himself.
7
The obvious and ideal solution to our border problems is to forego the wall and use the money to have the Army Corps of Engineers build us a giant funnel that will quickly and efficiently transport all the crazed and depraved illegals presently camping on our border to the grassy lawns of Mar-a-Lago, where Stephen Miller, Ivanka Trump and other caring members of the Trump family will go out-of-their-way to insure that good, high-paying job opportunities for all of our illegals are created.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/us/mar-a-lago-undocumented-workers.html
5
Why do I need to see a picture of this evil man this morning and read yet more about trump, every day!!!
What about Mozambique?
What’s happening in Cameroon? Does my favorite newspaper, the New York Times, realize how little coverage they have had of the problems in other parts of the world.
What about non-Trump news for a change!
Please, I’m so tired of reading about our crazy president that I’ve stopped reading any of the articles at all about him. I’m moving away from the news in boredom and anger.
Please , New York Times Editors, please help us have a little more balance and stop supporting trump so much.
You are giving trump exactly what he wants. You are only getting him reelected!
Thank you.
9
How would you like your job to include getting yelled at by Steven Miller? Does he wear his MAGA hat 24-7?
6
Trump needs to stop whining so much about what Obama and the Democrats have or have not done and start showing what Trump and the Republicans can do. Trump had a Republican majority House and Senate for the first two years of his administration and what did he accomplish in those two years? Nada....Bupkis. Wake up Donald! You can't keep blaming others for your own failings. The ball has been in your court for too long now and you have failed in your leadership, bigly.
3
Don't. This has been kicked down the road for decades.
1
Trump, Miller and the rest of the administration should be purged. Gerrymandering, campaign finance, and voter registration laws have made many Americans skepical of the election process and the legitimacy of Trump who they see as a misantropic bigot.
Since Homo Erectus left Africa, humans have migrated across the globe and interbred with other Homo species. Today, most humans, except pure Africans, have Neanderthal and other Homo species genes in their DNA. Humans, like any other able species, will continue to migrate as environments change. National borders will not thwart this, resulting in political instability and casualties on all sides.
We have the sociological and anthropological knowledge to understand this and so accommodate migration. Failure to do will go badly for all humanity.
2
Okay American you like to think these mothers and children are illegal aliens. That sounds like a great reason to just send them back or lock them up and let them fend for themselves. They’re not our problem.
And this person of policy that the fool on the hill relies on to get those illegal children to get out your country shows no remorse or morals.
America , you’ll own the repercussions of the hate policy of miller and that other one.
1
Stephen Miller did not receive any votes in the last election. Nor was Miller appointed to his office by President Trump with the advice and consent of the Senate.
But the fact that Miller is a white European Jewish American immigrant heir like Jared Kushner, Steven Mnuchin, Larry Kushner, Sheldon Adelson, Haim Saban, Ben Cardin and Chuck Schumer matters. Miller is part of both the Israel Lobby and the white Conservative Confederate evangelical supremacist lobby.
The fact that the Trump base was tiki torch carrying marching and chanting " Jews will not replace us" as fine people on both sides at Charlottesville is forgiven and forgotten.
Stephen Miller reminds one of a combination of Leon Trotsky, Roy Cohn, Reinhard Heydrich and Judah P. Benjamin.
Miller along with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner constitute a triumvirate axis of ignorant, immature, immoral, incompetent, inexperienced, intemperate and insecure evil at the " heart" of the Trump White House.
6
It would appear the Republican party is willing to give up the claim to be the party favoring the rule of law.
9
They gave it up long ago.
4
But they do favor authoritarianism, as long as it’s their autocrat.
2
What is most terrifying about Miller and Trump is not their stance on immigration, but their determination to ignore law as determined by Congress, or as upheld by the court system. It's having a system of law and check and balances which protects us - - - and, while I do not doubt their bigotry, it's the refusal to accept legal constraints than makes them dangerous. They pretend to be defending a system which they obviously either don;t understand or despise.
19
Often it is climate change that is driving the movements of refugees across the globe. Overpopulation, desertification, flooding, heat destruction of farmland, erratic climate and like pressures causing resource wars. This will intensify faster than we expect, especially if we ignore the necessity of curbing fossil fuels. Trump wants a wall and troops at the border. He thinks he alone with his puny wall can stem all of humanity fleeing their own chaos. But walls fall and nations fall. The best way of insulating against hatred and the fruits of hatred is to try to help these displaced people and also to put reasonable, if strict, refugee and immigration regulations in place while doing what you can do for these people without panic, fear and emotional dysfunction.
Trump, if he gets re-elected may produce refugees fleeing the US and then we will understand the other side much better.
7
Of all the harmful things President Trump has done to people, the worst may be taking infants and young children away from their mothers, fathers, and families. Congress and the legal system need to have an open and candid discussion about Child Abuse. There is probably not a pediatrician anywhere in the world who would say that this treatment is not harmful. These children will suffer physical and emotional delay and harm for years to come. - A judge has ordered all these children to be re-united with their parents. This has not happened. When an ordinary citizen does not comply with a court order they are brought before the judge. Why are the President and his associates in the White House exempt from this legal proceeding?
14
Climate change, energy policies that exploit and corrupt country leaders and our insatiable hunger for drugs are just a few of the problems driving people to leave their countries. Those are are the issues needing addressing.
And, no, we can't support immigrants with the 1% funding regulation cuts: parks, education, medical, infrastructure....They don't care if starvation, violence drive down the populations, they're mostly safe from the results.
5
Let's see. We have a spoiled 3-year-old wearing the body of an obese 73-year-old uber-narcissist being led around by, and in thrall to, a 33-year-old ""senior" adviser with the instincts and personality of a wolverine.
MAGA? Is America not already a great country or what?
Anyone. Absolutely anyone can grow up to be president or, in Miller's case, lead one around by the nose. No common sense needed; certainly no morals. Missing a metaphorical heart? Not a problem, more an asset than anything. If Trump had only one of these things, Steven Miller would be as unknown, and about as influential, as the average Joe Sixpack.
18
trump had Congress for his first two years, yet no health care plan or immigration plan to boast about. now that the democrats to back the house, he knows its going to a very steep hill to climb, and he doesn't like to compromise. we know he doesn't mind breaking laws, or better having someone else break a law with a promise from him of a pardon. wouldn't it be funny if a law was broken and it was prosecuted at the state level, and a trump pardon wouldn't work. the Mueller report in some version is expected to be released this week, even with black outs I believe there will be enough to show trump colluded and obstructed justice, even if there isn't enough evidence to file formal charges. but the American people still need to know we do have a person living at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave who cares nothing about our laws or constitution. trump fired Comey in hopes of ending the Russia investigation; and then in Helsinki standing just a few feet from Putin, told us he believed the Russian dictator over our own intelligence agencies. In 2020 new leadership is desperately needed.
4
It is a pity that the immigration rules and laws that the Trump Administration advocates were not in place in 1930, when Mary MacLeod immigrated from the Outer Hebrides to the United States where her older sister lived.
Had those laws been in place then, we would have been spared this president.
18
Amen!!!!
2
Trump's core belief about immigration would be far more believable if his businesses did not hire undocumented workers. Talk about hypocrisy---nothing new there...
5
Stephen Miller wearing a Border Patrol ball cap? Cosplay at its worst. This has to infuriate the CBP agents. I look forward to Miller’s fall.
10
It allows the spray paint to dry.
4
The problem with Trump is that he thinks he is above the law and that he can ignore it with impunity. His Republican enablers are only too happy to make this a reality. Sadly the Supreme Court has embraced the discrimination and racism the Republicans now stand for and stunningly its Republican Justices have now demonstrated their own disregard for law. Rather than changing the laws, the do-nothing Republicans only passed one law, taxes, but instead are changing the courts by appointing judges who don't believe in enforcing existing laws. Trump's "purge" of HHS is simply his latest attack on the rule of law in this country. Equally critical is his attack on environmental laws, giving corporations a "pass" on existing laws, and his attacks on women and minorities. Expect his tantrums to get more vehement as the Democratic House refuses to cater to his whims and is demonstrating what a government should be, in contrast to his Republican toadies. Never vote Republican.
5
@Seeker - I find it at least slightly refreshing that some of his hand-picked department heads have refused to break the laws, even under orders from Trump.
1
I assume Stephen Miller also became infuriated when he was told that his plan to construct and use gas chambers onsite near the refugee future "tent camps" was deemed "legally questionable, impractical, unethical or unreasonable".
7
Nosferatu Miller should be finally brought into the sunlight, and we all need to watch him vaporize. Subpoena him and televise the hearings.
14
As for the 15-25 illegals already here give them green cards WITHOUT a chance for citizenship and collect taxes when they work. If they don't work then you can deport but you know where they are. Have E verify so employers cannot hire off the books. With strong penalties for employers who try to hire off the books.
As for the illegals claiming asylum it actually makes sense to send them where employees are needed. Send them to farm country where workers are needed and allow them to work during the period they are waiting for their hearing. Makes no sense to drop hundreds at the ElPasso bus station and not know where they go.
And yes we need to have stronger immigration laws. The republicans could have proposed something during the two years they controlled congress but they did not. To stop the walkers you need to figure out how to keep them in their home country. And for that I have no answer. When you have nothing you have nothing to lose.
4
@Vincentpapa So extend DACA to even more? No.
1
This idea floated by the Trump crowd of taking what they consider to be punitive action against sanctuary cities by flooding their streets with illegal aliens is beyond words for me. They are talking about trying to punish American cities for political reasons. It is difficult to imagine what further proof the country needs that Trump is totally unfit for the job.
8
That look on his admittedly handsome face looks as mad as a hatter's. He had two years where the Dems offered him comprehensive immigration reform. The problems came from the far right. Now he is just using fleeing asylum seekers as pawns in his election bid. This is getting desperate for Trump because as soon as he loses the WH he is heading for a jail cell. 17 or 18 women can't all be wrong and there are many many powerful forces demanding justice whom the mad king has antagonised. That is why he is so dangerous. He will do anything to hang on. He is not leaving when there is a landslide.. a tsunami... an electoral annihilation.. He would start a civil warr to stay out of prison.
21
Imagine… self-parodies, or the moral twilight our political servants and their bureaucratic Paladins reside in; if the oratorical deceit flowing from the lips of our political servants, is any indicator of their integrity they must suffer chronic indigestion.
Imagine… the latest wastrel to be flushed from the partisan swamp, is the former FBI director. If the rhetorical deceit flowing from Comey were not so calculating and pathetic it would be considered comical.
Imagine… Barr’s testimony and the mention of spying seems to have un-hinged all the party zealots and Trump haters. Talk about the self-aggrandizing quandary of political madness gone the way of politically correct party zealotry superseding national loyalty.
2
Unhinged! Irony at its best. When a court signs surveillance requests, they follow the rule of law. Maybe you should be looking for the pedophile ring at the pizza parlour. One branch of government is a bad idea.
Meanwhile, Trump uses the H2-A visa program to staff Mar-a-Lago and his other properties with seasonal foreign guest workers instead of American citizens.
Add ‘shameless hypocrite’ to the list of his horrible personality traits. Trump could afford to create jobs that would be attractive to American workers. Yet he chooses to import cheap foreign labor. The man has no actual principles on immigration.
28
Stephen Miller, a disgrace to his family and to humanity.
Where is Jared, the grandson of holocaust survivors?
Surely he has heard first hand, the stories of families being separated and the children being taken from their parents.
Maybe Jared can add another job to his portfolio, head of immigration.
Jared, put Mideast Peace” on the back burner. There are more immediate issues that are dire in this country.
20
“...it was another instance in which the law and machinations of government were getting in the way of needed changes.“
The law was getting in the way. What a perfect summation of this presidency; indeed it has been the defining characteristic of Mr. Trump’s career.
- build a series of self-dealing LLCs to hide income from the IRS
- create complex financial arrangements to protect yourself when your real estate machinations go south
- grind out your subcontractors and pay them a fraction of what you agreed - or not at all
- even if it doesn’t rise to the level of criminal conspiracy, welcome assistance from a foreign adversary in your presidential campaign
- likewise, your transition team
- likewise, your inauguration committee
- create a sweet arrangement where those seeking regulatory favors must display fealty and patronage
- grant security clearances to members of your administration who have been demonstrated to be risks or at least unqualified.
I could go on.
It’s no surprise Trump relentlessly pushes against the rules, norms, and laws that are supposed to keep one person from accumulating too much power. He’s been doing it his whole life. And getting away with it.
The framers literally wrote the Constitution to prevent this from happening. Enacting and changing laws is supposed to frustrating and cumbersome. It’s called balance of power.
The framers knew what to call such an impatient, reckless, and self-empowering executive: A king. A tyrant.
32
The worst part of all of this is that Trump has absolutely no intention of fixing the problem, it's too great as a vote getting weapon. So all of the Miller or separation drama is done knowing it in flames the base but does nothing to alleviate the problems. Sit down and negotiate with Democrats? Why do that when you can keep saying they're for open borders and criminals. A few years ago a comprehensive bill was within reach. Now I'm not sure that's remotely possible with the current iteration of Republicans!
29
Neither Trump or Miller have focused on a valid solution to immigration just heartless policies they thought would act as deterrents. The long term fix for immigration is to help stabilize the governments in Central America but instead they cut off aid. Their entire agenda is based on a premise of bigotry and malice.
29
@Dawn - Trump and Miller USED to be about deterrence, or at least they said they were when they snatched thousands of babies from their mothers, arguing that would deter others from coming.
Now, Trump's advertising that he wants to transport immigrants to the best, safest cities, the ones the immigrants would be delighted to land in. That's guaranteed to serve as an advertisement for more to decide to come here.
Yelling in a meeting? Berating people in a meeting?
It’s not a taxi company. It is supposed to be the highest level of professionalism in the country.
Mr. Miller is out of his league and is not fit for high office.
58
“Regulation on welfare benefits for immigrants: After nearly two years of painstaking work and more than 200,000 public comments, the 447-page rule is on track to eventually be published.”
I don’t doubt that the regulation has been well crafted and covers all the bases – bit it seems voluminous and impenetrable.
I wonder if such regulations don’t lead many Americans to think, though, that their Government has lost touch with them. Such thoughts and resultant doubts are a gold mine for politicians with their one line solutions.
1
Thank you for writing about Stephen Miller. He has been overlooked for too long. I think he is dangerous.
23
The immigration phobia that Trump suffers from is neither possible to be shared by the Homeland security officials to the same degree as by Trump nor could be translated into a nation's policy. Thus asking for the impossible, as Trump is doing, will only create frictions and misunderstanding with the officials who are regularly being sjown the exit door. Such purges in the Trump administration have become a routine affair.
3
Miller is a symptom of this dictatorial and dysfunctional government. Eventually all this chaos, hatred, incompetence and cruelty will become too much for most people and the era of Trump will be over. Like communism, it will leave behind it a hard learned lesson that will last in the public memory for quite a while. It will inoculate the general public against electing another Trump and it just may finish off this mostly passive version of the Republican party. May it happen sooner rather than later so we as a country will survive the Trump era dismantling, slashing and trashing of the Constitution and the rule of law. Otherwise, resign yourself to living in a crippled, backward and dysfunctional country that has lost its way.
20
That sub headline sums up the whole presidency: Legally questionable, unethical, unreasonable. Oh maybe add immoral, irrational, insincere, inconsistent, callous....this could keep going...
7
"But Mr. Miller remains unsatisfied..." Yeah? Let's keep him that way. He's a menace to America. Trump and his "trusted advisor" have taken GW Bush"s "I am the decider" to a perverse extreme.
Is this performative cruelty or reasoned policy?
What possesses a child of privilege from a family of immigrants to bypass the law and belligerently berate those who are charged with enforcing the law? How is one so bereft of empathy to seek to "deny...benefits to immigrants" or "overturn court-ordered protections for migrant children?"
If "the president has little interest or understanding about how to turn his gut instincts into reality," is that due to arrogance or ignorance?
What qualifications does a 33 year old zealot have, besides being a regressive ideologue, to overturn "rules for...screenings...written into law by Congress?"
This article leaves me with lots of questions, few answers, and intense anger. Let's summon the ghost of Nancy Reagan and "just say no!"
13
Authoritarian governments don't need no stinking LAWS. Follow orders and I will protect you.
10
Go Trump and Miller!
*legal immigrant here.
5
@Alexgri - The people Trump is treating as illegals are mostly those who came to apply for asylum, as they have the legal right to do under both US and international law.
3
“It should be the first thought you have when you wake up. And it should be the last thought you have before you go to bed."
I don't think that's what Deuteronomy 6 had in mind.
4
When are the American people going to finally realize that Mr. Miller is running the country. He thinks it and it comes out of Trump’s mouth.
10
Both Miller and Trump are psychopaths in need of deep therapy. Something happened to both of them during their childhood. I almost feel sorry for them because they must have been so unloved to grow up to be such cruel people and so full of hate towards others and rage.
17
Every day this country is turning more and more into some sort of third world autocracy.
9
@mjbarr Maybe because we’re letting in too many third world people? California is becoming Newer Mexico and our state legislature has already become a dictatorship. Their sole ambition is to have as many illegals come here as possible and give them the right to vote so the Democrats stay in power. They’re already giving them driver’s licenses and our roads have become a nightmare of hit-and-run, uninsured illegal motorists and clueless drivers who think 65 means kilometers so they drive 40 mph in the fast lane.
1
I can't help but wonder how many lives have been damaged because of Stephen Miller's inability to get a date.
22
Has Mr. Miller ever had a real-world job with real responsibilities outside of being " a spokesman" or an " ideologue" or a " senior White House Advisor?"
It would be interesting to see what the qualifications were for each one of his positions besides being a committed white nationalist.
Is that a qualification nowadays for jobs outside of the WH, the NRA and white nationalist organizations and media?
Just wondering.
6
It is worth noting again that, under both the Obama and Bush administrations, the number of illegal border crossings had been steadily declining over the past couple of decades. Now, under Trump, we are seeing a spike in illegal border crossings. Why is that?
Is it because the Trump administration has underfunded, understaffed or outright closed many asylum courts and legal points of entry, creating conditions in which illegal crossings have become the most viable remaining choice?
Is it because Trump’s nationalist fear-mongering, race-baiting, primarily punitive and often abusive policies are encouraging people to risk border crossings before things get even worse?
Is this another example of Trump exacerbating or creating problems outright so that he can then appear to ride in on his bone-spurred horse to save the world in his own image?
Yes, U.S. immigration policies need to be improved. No, Democrats are not pushing for “open borders.” But “doing something” is not the same as “doing something right.” I submit that following the spiteful, hate-filled leads of Trump and Miller will not help us achieve the kind of country and world that fulfills our greatest needs, hopes, and potentials.
738
@Scott Fordin The increase in families crossing the border have nothing to do with Trump and everything to do with the Dems insisting that if you have a child with you, you must be released into the US.
9
@Scott Fordin So true, Scott; of course, you're preaching to the choir here. Hppefully we will have a candidate who can articulate so clearly that republicans can hear the truth about it. Say, Scott, what are you doing for the four years?
10
@Scott Fordin
re: Bush and Obama.
The slight dip during the Bush admin was not Central Americans but Mexicans, because the prior 2 decades had seen up to 1 million illegal Mexicans per year, in addition to tens of thousands of legal Mexican immigration. The U.S. had already absorbed nearly 1/3 of Mexico since 1965. During the Obama admin, Mexican illegal immigration declined because the U.S. economy collapsed in 2009.
What is seen now is the same massive 1 million per year Central American illegal immigration as we endured in the 1980s and 1990s from Mexico. And Democrats - as well as religious organizations - ARE pushing open borders. Democrats have pushed for that since the mid-1960s upending of existing U.S. immigration law that broke the system under LBJ's direction. And 50 years later, Democrats have done zero to fix what they broke and don't think Americans are bright enough to know the history of this problem - that they created and have refused to mend.
7
Trump and Miller are racist bigots who just hate brown skinned people and believe them to be no better than animals who should be penned in cages or sent back to die. Trump says America is “full”. It’s a country over 3 million square miles. It’s largest states are basically empty outside of the larger cities. Montana? - 145,000 square miles of emptiness. Arizona? - 113,000 squrea miles of emptiness. New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming? Each a 100,000 square miles of emptiness.
And Trump says the US is “full” . He’s not that stupid. He knows it’s a lie, but we know he loves his lies to justify his bigotry.
22
@Cranford
Illegal immigrants are not going to settle in the empty spaces of the Untied States. The empty spaced or empty because there are no jobs there.
4
@Cranford As William Case pointed out, empty space is just that. Space. Open land doesn’t automatically translate into housing, jobs, and opportunity. Death Valley isn’t poised and waiting to become the next metropolis. The money to support the millions of illegals coming in (and already here) doesn’t materialize out of thin air once they cross our border. How do you pay for them?
1
@Cranford
Canada has a FAR lower population density than the US but has taken steps to reduce illegal immigration and bogus asylum claims. Funny how that works.
Whether a country has enough people or not is up to the citizens of that nation to decide, not would be immigrants. I don't want to live in a country with the population density of Mumbai, Shanghai, Mexico City or Lagos.
1
Miller...the article reads like an early chapter of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Did we not teach history in the ‘50s thru the ‘90s in our schools, does the Republican leadership in the Senate have any recall of what their parent and grandparents did in the 40’s and why they did it, do we have any sense of decency. So far the answer appears to be “no”. The pastor had it right “First they came...”. As Timothy Snyder has said ..we need to stand up and speak out now!!!
43
@Bob Bode Congratulations! Goodwin’s Law is not lost on you! The comparisons to Hitler and Trump continually never cease to amaze me. The poor souls lost in the Holocaust were victims of mass destruction or slaughtered. Rounded up and placed into ghettos and killed. Even German citizens who were non Jewish were caught up in the annihilation. We have all nationalities in America and enjoy their contribution to our society, legally. Illegal immigrants are not being rounded up to be killed, or placed Into walled cities. Unlike Jews, illegal immigrants are free to return to their country of origin or not come at all. They have a choice where millions upon millions of those under Hitlers reign did not.
The flood of illegal immigrants tax our system, our schools, our health care that we pay for through increased taxes.
It’s not about the color of their skin or their religion.
3
Stephen Miller is Trump’s provocateur -he prods his angry, bully of a boss to rage on and ignore American values and even the Constitution.Sometimes he mirrors Trump”s frustrations with government and sometimes he exaggerates them He has such an unimpressive resume-writing speeches for Sessions and Bachman.He needs to be seen as the the one who incites and encourages the Trump lies and rants.Trump has fired everyone in the White House with common sense or they have left before becoming too entangled in Trump follies.
6
All politics fault. After two years of unfettered republican control dems own the house and immigration issues are suddenly their fault. Trump and his cabal have to be the most asinine two faced clowns to inhabit the office. If nothing else this latest ploy proves just how ridiculously stupid and racist they are. Of course there is no difference between Trump and his base, nothing has changed decent people will look on in disgust and bewilderment while his not particularly bright lemmings praise his idiocy.
12
@Rick Beck
Agreed. Sadly these bigots are experts in the art of telling the ‘Big Lie’.
Repeat a lie often enough and people will begin to believe it true. Particularly effective when backed up with a phony ‘news’ station.
@Rick Beck Yep, all Trump’s followers are morons. Let’s see, I went to UC Berkeley, have two degrees, and my IQ tests somewhere around 160. Try reading Victor Davis Hanson’s new book and maybe you’ll understand the lemmings a little better. It’s very easy to pontificate from the pie-in-the-sky viewpoint of Democrats and very hard to implement solutions that actually work - which is why the Dems never bother to.
1
I wish Trump and Miller could articulate why immigration --and immigration of Hispanics in particular--is such a crisis.
It seems uniquely un-American to be talking about closing borders. We aren't protecting any cultural or ethnic purity since America's defining characteristic IS it's diversity.
Trump and Miller aren't responding to any groundswell of public opinion. Just the opposite. According to Gallup, since 1995, the number of Americans calling for a decrease in immigration has dropped from 65% to 31% and the number of people calling for an increase in immigration has risen from 7% to 31%. 37% of Americans are fine with the way things are.
We certainly are far from "full." We have more job openings now than people looking for jobs. Much of the work done by undocumented immigrants we can't even make prisoners do. In just about every city and town in America, hard-working undocumented people are an integral part of the economy and he community.
Undocumented immigrants are no blight on America. The Pew Research Center has shown that undocumented immigrants pour more money into government in the form of payroll taxes and real estate tax than they take out in services. There also are ample crime statistics to show that undocumented immigrants are more law-abiding than average Americans.
Is Trump-- who only recently fired his undocumented workers-- playing us?
467
@Scott
Trump cannot even articulate a one-word answer.
Trump is playing/conning his supporters, no one else,
53
@Scott No, he and Miller are working out their psychological issues on the world stage.
18
@Scott - this is just the latest iteration of the "we're full" trope to keep out those whom the immigrants who preceded them deem inferior - or worse. Today's descendants of Irish immigrants should remind themselves of NINA - no Irish need apply. And today's Italians, Greeks, Spaniards and Portuguese should remind themselves that they were considered "black" (not even brown), illness carrying vermin when they arrived. And today's Jews should remind themselves that the St. Louis was turned away on the lie that we were full, and a quarter of those people died in the holocaust. And Stephen Miller should remind himself of his eastern European roots, with ancestors who never spoke English, even after decades in the US, who arrived with no skills or education, but whose descendants built successful companies and their descendants became doctors, lawyers and other professionals. And Trump - the biggest hypocrite of all - should remind himself that his military service dodging (apple doesn't fall far from the tree), uneducated grandfather, his uneducated and unskilled business starting grandmother, his seeking better economic opportunities mother, his current wife who entered and worked in the US illegally, who sponsored her parents' "chain-migration" and maybe his first wife, too, all benefited from immigrating to the US. Now they want to pull up the drawbridge, because they fancy themselves better than these others. I'd take 1M of today's migrants over any of today's Trumps.
31
The problem with Trump is he is incompetent when it comes to process and negotiations. His Art of the deal name calling, intimidation and deflect and deny has failed him every time. He looks for ways to abuse his position as a means to achieve his goals. In the end he creates another disaster. He can't think through the entire process hence why his easy to win trade war is now in its second year!
336
@Gail Heath I fully agree with you. Even if one agrees with Trump and Miller about the urgent need to limit immigration from the southern border, the two do not have a clue as to how to create the consensus needed to get this done. Thus they resort to circumventing the law and creating a totalitarian-type state.
88
@Gail Heath
Agree with you, Gail.
He's never had to think, he just throws out a command and 'someone' does it. If it doesn't work, the person gets fired.
This is all well and good in a 'family run' business.
He has not figured out, and is unlikely to even consider that this is not his own business.
8
Donald has spent his entire career, such as it is, deceiving people: pretending that Trump Tower is taller than it is, cheating on his taxes, stiffing contractors and other vendors, fraud at Trump U, feathering his own nest by robbing his foundation, money laundering through his casinos, and pretending to be an astute businessman and mogul on The Apprentice. We could go on—the list is long.
His run and ascendency to the presidency were predicated on many false promises to his gullible voters. Immigration, keeping those imaginary marauding hordes of brown invaders far from the border, building a wall funded by Mexico, was his cornerstone. Turns out that like much in Donald’s career, it was a PR stunt. Now he desperately needs to stay in the White House to stay out of the big house so he’s willing to see if he can force people into breaking the law for him. Who knows, it may work. He’s not exactly surrounded by the A team, more like the F troop.
As for Stephen Miller, he needs a subpoena and a hot seat in front of the appropriate congressional committees. Same with all of the DHS officials who were in the room when Donald made his offer of a pardon. Time to get it all on the record. Donald does not like sworn testimony when it is about him.
1147
@NJLatelifemom
If Trump had really spent his life deceiving people, he wouldnt have gotten past his second or third real estate project, let alone build the 4th tallest skyscraper in the country, Trump Tower in Chicago, which is taller then the Empire State Building. When your in business at that scale, people take notice, and dont get involved with you for tens of millions of dollars. Not to mention, TV networks understand branding better then anybody. Its their business. They wouldnt hire a guy to host a TV show, that was number one for many years, if their host was a cheat and a liar.
So suddenly Trump went from a beloved NY personality, who did cameos in movies like Home Alone and countless appearances on talk shows like Oprah, to being a vile hated man by liberals.
None of this was ever said about Trump, until he beat Democrats in an election.
6
@Sports Medicine
He may have been a "beloved NY personality" in Staten Island, but he sure wasn't in Manhattan.
256
@ sports medicine
You are correct. Sounds to me, the Donald would be better off as White House PR Director than POTUS. You know with reality television, branding, ratings and all. The National Enquirer? What a joke!
79
Prior to November 2016, someone with Stephen Miller's resume' wouldn't have been allowed in the White House on a tour. Now, in the alternate reality of Trumpworld, he sets the agenda, urging the president to trample the rule of law in service to the xenophobic vision they share. And yet, hardly a whimper from congressional republicans, who have, once again, chosen their loyalty to Trump & party over the Americans who they represent and who, on almost every major issue including immigration, disagree with the direction we're headed.
34
Government officials are obligated to follow the Constitution, not the president. When they receive an unjust or immoral order they are obligated to ignore it.
Let's see how many Americans of conscience there are left to go around.
17
All these unethical and probably illegal actions by Trump and Miller could be made unnecessary if Democrats would spend more time trying to come up with a decent immigration policy. At this point the system is so broken that an overall policy may not be possible but Democrats are surely capable of coming up with and passing some intelligent and workable ideas.
Hitting Trump and the rest on their shreading of the rule of law is necessary and good but while doing that and carrying out the other investigations they should at least offer some basic solutions. There are enough Democratic Congressional Representatives to do both or what was the blue wave for?
The voting public will soon tire of all the negative, hopeless talk around immigration and Democrats have a huge chance to lead the way here. I hope that chance is not wasted. The lives of immigrants literally depend on solutions being found to the humanitarian crisis at our southern border.
6
@Gretchen King
"if Democrats would spend more time trying to come up with a decent immigration policy."
Democrats did, and got enough Republican votes to pass the Senate---it wasn't a perfect solution, but that's because it was a compromise.
The bill had enough votes to pass the House, and to be signed by then President Obama, but the Republican Speaker would not let the House vote (because he knew it would pass and Republicans prefer to demagogue on the issue of immigration, not solve it)
Other steps that would help, which Republicans obstruct, is stopping gun running from poorly regulated sales of AR-15 type weapons in Texas to Mexico and Central America, and stopping drug trafficking north (which Trump, by pulling agents away from their work at ports of entry, is making worse)
Another helpful step is to work with our neighbors to improve the regional economy and to stop kicking small farmers off their land in Central America---Trump is making all this worse
6
I dont think I've ever heard a govt employee, working at the front lines of the border, disagree with the President's proposed policy changes.
The major resistance to change comes from the top brass, all of whom are WashDC insiders, political appointees of one sort or another. The Policy Makers, the ones who will never admit that their enforced decisions have been self-destructive.
And even the local politicians are suddenly faced with the consequences of their own delusions.....Sanctuary Cities, once posing as the morally superior, self-righteous places of humanity......are opposing attempts to send refugees to the previous sanctuaries. Most wealthy urban centers are well known for refusing to deal with their homeless problems too.
2
. We see the cast of characters almost daily from Trump to the daughter of a preacher man to Mitch to Graham to a flock of enablers in Congress to FOX to the VP and we shake our heads in wonder. Then a poll comes out that shows 40% of the country supports the president. The fault dear Brutus is not in the stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings.
10
Mr. Trump should go ahead and name Mr. Miller to head all of these agencies. Then, the courts could move forward with firing Mr. Miller from those positions, jail him, and tell Mr. Trump to change the subject as he usually does when he doesn't like the way things are going with whatever he's attempting to do. The Trump Administration does, as usual, moves ahead one step, drops back two steps.
5
The Kushners need to invite Miller to their Seder this year and make him read the entire Haggadah so he can perhaps re-learn the message of the Exodus and the edict to help others in flight.
This administration’s actions are antithetical to everything America is about, too, and it’s high time for people in power counteract its actions.
26
While their illegal Honduran helpers serve the meal.
2
If Trump is an autocrat without an autocracy, in Josh Marshall's sharp phrase, then he is also an ideologue without ideology, just many resentments and a desire for public display. He needs obsessed fanatics like Bannon, Miller, Bolton and so on to provide content.
The border is attractive because of the power asymmetry that leaves him untouchable, the occasion for developing the use of unmonitored force and authority, and the visceral appeal of simple racism, which ensures a certain level of popularity.
As with his other initiatives, if he is steered away from provoking catastrophe (in this case, economic), he and his 'supporters' can probably keep the 'crisis' going for quite a while.
9
Stephen Miller was furious? The architect of President Trump's immigration strategy and purge at DHS? Time for a different architect. He's not tightening up the asylum process, he's not doing the job Trump wants.
The president's failed promises and lies to his base -- we'll build a "big, beautiful wall" on our southern border, "Mexico will pay for it!" and we'll keep out immigrants because "we're full!" -- are harbingers of president Trump's downfall. So are the plethora of Democratic candidates for the Presidency sprinting toward 2020.
Mr. Trump's ultra-right anti-immigration consigliore, Stephen Miller, is an angry man, 33 years old, whose policies aren't ethical or reasonable. He has been the president's Senior Advisor for Policy since January, 2016. He was Mr. Trump's speech-writer during the campaign. He's engineered Trump's firing of several department heads and appointed "acting" secretaries, deputies to no avail.
The U.S. Immigration system has reached a breaking-point. Trump (at Miller's behest) has threatened to send asylum-seekers from Central America to Sanctuary Cities in the U.S.. Not until next year, when a new president is elected to replace this one, will our government stop being an Olla Podrida under Stephen Miller, Acting Chief of Trump's Kakistocracy.
6
This is a familiar scenario with the likes of Trump: my policies are failing because people are blocking them. So out with the old and in with a new set of sycophants who are even willing to break the law to curry favor (e.g. Michael Cohen). The problem becomes that as the policies continue to fail, which they always do, a major diversion is needed, such as invading Mexico.
5
When you want to ignore and break the laws of the land, most people would not want to do that from the most public position in the land. But here we have Trump who is used to ignoring whatever law inconvenienced him in the past when he was a private citizen.
So when administration officials advise Trump or Miller that 'you can't do that because it is against the law', they whine and blame others.
What ever happened to working with knowledgable and competent people to draft legislation that would be vetted and then implemented legally? Silly me, that would require mature and thoughtful consideration - something Trump is not capable of ever doing.
And the biggest reason Trump nor Miller would not want to act in an honorable manner? The cruelty or vindictiveness which they want their actions to embody would not pass the legal threshold.
These two hateful men have had 2 years to work with Congress and or just the GOP to formulate and implement policy. There was no pressing need until Ann Coulter threatened Trump and then he was so scared of losing his 'base' all of a sudden he had to act!
The hate was always there and Trump used it when necessary for votes. Now he is panicking for votes. And because he has no idea how to create policy and new legislation, he adds in cruelty to show he is 'tough'.
15
Of course, it never occurs to Trump or Miller that their best chance of curtailing immigration is to work toward changing the laws they find so vexing. Stephen Miller asking Congress to change the laws -- actually, demanding that they change them NOW NOW NOW while loudly mouthing off about the cowardice, lack of imagination, and lack of patriotism among elected officials -- brings a grin to my face. Contempt of Congress might get him tossed in the clink for a few weeks, a reward he would without doubt hate with all his being, if only because it would reflect his actual feelings.
7
The Media, the Democrats, and many government officials are not FLEXIBLE and fail to take into account how illegal immigration has changed in recent years, and how many millions economic migrants are taking advantage of the asylum system and of the birthright citizenship and of the loophole to bring minors with them to get a get out of jail card while staying free in the US. With a good for nothing Congress, how else to fix the problems at the border?
4
People have migrated from the Stone Age to today for exactly the same reasons... a better life for them and their children. Perhaps if we’d stop buying drugs and selling guns, their home countries would allow these immigrants a peaceful country in which they could survive.
3
Wasn't not long ago that the Republicans were suing President Obama for abuse of power? What are they waiting for now?
12
"Mr. Trump told Mr. McAleenan that he would pardon him if he ran into any legal problems, according to officials familiar with the conversation — though he denied it in a tweet Saturday night."
What next? Trump assigning a list of political assassinations of persons in the way of his ambition become a dictator, and promising to pardon the killers?
12
@Baltguy That's the way it works in the Philippines.
1
We recently had our house painted and one of the workers was admitted to the US under asylum laws. He had a work visa and wants to become a citizen.
He had been a farmer in Honduras. The gangs wanted to use his property for other purposes. He refused. He showed us the scars from three bullet wounds that resulted from his refusal. The farm was abandoned and now he’s happy to be a painter in the US.
Should anybody have to live like that? Should the US intervene in Honduras to stop the gangs? Or to help the government stop the gangs? Or just admit refugees?
I would rather have more immigrants admitted legally than send money or troops to other countries to fight gangs. They are looking for a better life and want to contribute to society.
So what’s with our leadership? It seems they’re fine with immigrants who look like them, but not anybody else. Take a look at those faces around the meeting table in the White House. The main thing lacking is diversity. Nothing is going to get done in Washington when this is the picture.
578
@Steve Ell Just a minute.
We have people here who could paint houses after suffering from gunshot wounds in a gang situation. We have gangs here, we have people looking for this sort of work.
We can't effectively handle gang violence here and we have no business going to other countries to "help" address gang violence there. The US has paid enough to the Central Americans governments to "help" and it clearly has not worked.
It is better for me to support legal US workers and help reduce the costs of public assistance for those workers and their families.
10
@Steve Ell That's a very thoughtful thing you said.
One of the ways immigration could be reduced is indeed by reducing unrest and poverty in places that border america.
Like mexico, honduras, etc. Once those places are much more liveable with better law and order, and quality of living, undoubtedly illegal immigration will reduce to a trickle.
9
@Steve Ell
Excellent, thank you!
12
"But Mr. Miller remains unsatisfied..." Yeah? Let's keep him that way. He's a menace to America. Trump and his "trusted advisor" have taken GW Bush"s "I am the decider" to a perverse extreme.
Is this performative cruelty or reasoned policy?
What possesses a child of privilege from a family of immigrants to bypass the law and belligerently berate those who are charged with enforcing the law? How is one so bereft of empathy to seek to "deny...benefits to immigrants" or "overturn court-ordered protections for migrant children?"
If "the president has little interest or understanding about how to turn his gut instincts into reality," is that due to arrogance or ignorance?
What qualifications does a 33 year old zealot have, besides being a regressive ideologue, to overturn "rules for...screenings...written into law by Congress?"
This article leaves me with lots of questions, few answers, and intense anger. Let's summon the ghost of Nancy Reagan and "just say no!"
23
Stephen Miller is a super villain.
16
@Cousy Your super villain is my super hero!
2
Mr Miller has most certainly become the Reinhardt Heydrich of the Trump government.Imposing his evil concepts into Trumps government of chaos.This chaos is then used to distract the public eye from Trumps graft and venality.America is so much better than these Repulican grifters.This will not end well Democracy stands on the brink.
21
@Jonathan Lipschutz
Agree- Reinhardt Heydrich is a good parallel to Stephen Miller. Heydrich admired and adored Adolph Hitler and carried out orders to the maximum horrific impact. Both he and Hitler fed on each other's delusion.
1
We have a so-called president who doesn't understand the three branches of government, who doesn't understand the U.S. Constitution, who doesn't know or care about history -- formulating U.S. immigration policy based on his personal prejudices and bigotry. Ranting hysterically and firing department professionals will not produce the desired goals of revising immigration policy. And now he doesn't have a credible person to send to Congress to press his case. #criminals and amateurs.
19
Turns out, Trump doesn't really like the US being 'a nation of laws,' after all.
20
Control over illegal immigration is happening and will continue to happen because it is the right thing to do. The Democrats have absolutely no plan - other than to do nothing and just roll over. Of course when the issue is so keenly watched and heated there are differences of opinion. Still the quarter back or coach calls the plays- all the plays. Borders will be controlled once the disheveled progressives accept this we can stop seeing media like this article rant about it.
1
@Dixon Duval maybe you should ask Mitch McConnell why he won't bring immigration or health care to the Senate floor. He knows there are those in his own party that won't agree on a republican plan. the republicans had control of both houses for two years, yet no immigration or health care plans passed . its easy to blame when you no longer have the control you once did; but it doesn't appear to me that the GOP of Congress had real solution, or you would be bragging about it. but your not, just doing what trump does, blame game.
5
@Dixon Duval
What is happening at your southern border can hardly be called "control". The lack of control appears to be the source of Miller's frustration. Those pesky laws are getting in his way, as are the public servants who are trying to do their jobs and uphold them.
Labelling asylum seekers as "illegal", does not help Trump's cause with informed citizens, because they know that claiming asylum is legal. Staying in the country after denial of asylum would be illegal.
From everything I have read and heard most of the people who are in the US illegally are those who have overstayed their visas. Wouldn't it be easier and make more sense to focus on them? This fact makes Miller's project look like a targeted effort against a specific group. What did Central Americans ever do to him to make him so angry?
1
@Dixon Duval They're not doing "nothing" they're actively trying to subvert the efforts of this administration. This will be better understood when they see the results from the voting booth.
1
There may very well come a day in our lives or the lives of our children when the shoe is on the other foot. A common theme in the NYT is that there is an “us”, and there is a “them”. And the writers and readers of this paper are the “us”.
Take a serious look around. There are going to be many more migrants in the not so distant future. Which side of the fence each of us will be on is an open question in my mind.
1
@Bird Time!
By the shoe being on the other foot do you mean that currently complacent citizens will one day be migrants themselves? It is possible. It could happen to your children, especially if the floods, wildfires, tornadoes, and hurricanes increase in frequency and ferocity.
I am guessing that you would not migrate to Central America or Mexico, so I guess you would come north to Canada. It's okay. We love our American cousins.
2
Trump stated that the migrants coming to America through our southern border are coming “to go to Disneyland.” He’s right... living in America would be akin to Disneyland. Imagine, being able to live and work in relative safety, have access to free public education for your children, access to healthcare and a safe food supply. America, for all its warts, is a real world Fantasyland. It’s just a shame that the president forces us all to live in dystopia
9
@Charlie Think how easy that ideal would be to accomplish in a small country, like Honduras?
I don’t get it. Immigration and trade are the only two things as president has done right! Wake up people the boarder is a mess and congress is guilty of sitting on their hands due to the monumental failure of McConnell and the republicans in congress. They are the ones who need to be voted out! Trump is right the border is in a crisis. But no wall is needed.
1
As a Jewish person, I have to say that Stephen Miller is the biggest disgrace to my people since the dawn of time. He understands nothing of our heritage, of the persecution we have suffered, of the tenets of our laws, of anything that we stand for. I am not a rabbi but I have to say that he is not Jewish. I don’t care what his DNA test may say.
20
David, don't be ashamed.
When I look at Miller, I don't see someone who is Jewish.
I see someone who is vile. Unfortunately evil is colorblind.
8
As Trump enforcer Stephen Miller pushes Immigration employees to ignore the asylum law, the Trump administration exacerbates the problem by cutting off aid to Central American ("Mexican" to Trump) countries whose poverty and crime are the root cause of the immigration crisis. When what is needed is a renewal of a partnership with Latin America to deal with the root causes, we have instead a monstrous racist based cruel chaos inflicting needless pain and suffering. Add to this a willful ignorance of how climate change is causing economic collapse in poor and vulnerable countries.
4
Face it. In this man’s twisted mind, he thinks he’s King and God’s greatest gift to mankind. Let history make that determination. He has violated his oath of office to protect and execute our laws. Only the ones that suit his personal agenda. Forget on how it affects our country as a whole. His immigration policies lacked logic and humility. So many turnovers and vacancies in his administration. If it wasn’t so serious, it would be laughable.
Nothing normal about this man, and we should stop pretending there is. Let’s now examine his behavior in the un-redacted portions of the Mueller Report. The time for truth is now upon us to determine if he deserves re-election and if he is fit for the highest office in our land. No amount of spin to sugar coat it will suffice Mr President. The time for accountability is now. Quit trying to place blame on everyone else. The buck stops at your desk. Embarrassing to say the least.
10
@Woosa09
"Quit trying to place blame on everyone else."
Actually, I would place the blame on someone else: every single Republican Elector and every single Republican in Congress.
2
@ Lynn
I concur, they don’t know the damage that’s been inflicted on our nation that will take years, if not decades to repair.
Thank you
Stephen Miller, great grandson of refugee immigrants from Belarus fleeing anti-Semetic violence looking for a better economic life in America, wants to make sure no one else - especially non-whites - ever gets the same opportunity his own family got.
"only the worst possible people"
Trump 2019
22
Trump has never had and respect for the law. In fact, he has spent his life getting away with criminal behavior. Having never experienced any consequences for his criminality, why would he start respecting the law now? As far as this guy Miller goes, he’s as bad as Trump and maybe worse. As an American, I’m both ashamed and saddened by the truly disgusting people in charge. I hope Nancy Pelosi is right that our institutions can withstand the assault and survive the Trump/Miller reign of terror.
17
Ignore the law? Inconceivable.
I suggest the Mr. Miller publish the results of a 23 and me test as a measure of his racial purity.
3
Trump is not a president. He sits upon the seat in the WH and carries the mantel of power, but he has no regard for the law, the constitution or being the president of the United States. He prefers only a few states , certain states, certainly not the entire country,s well being, He’ lead by his instincts and small minded white supremist who would be the leader of Incel if he were working in the WH.
This is madness
10
Mr. Miller a senior advisor at the ripe age of 33. Mr. Miller is nothing more than a racist who wishes to further his own vision of what this country should look like racially.
Mr. Miller's nativist views may play well with the Trump supporters who decry any immigration of someone not white and the spineless GOP "lawmakers", it remains to be seen how the nativist bigotry will play out in 2020. Will enough voters succumb to the Trump con artistry to keep him under his white hood or reject the charlatan and his not so well hidden racism?
9
It is rotten enough that Trump was elected with the assistance of an antiquated instrument - the electoral college - rather than the actual tally of votes.
What is even more horrid is that an unelected, creepy, immoral shadow lurks behind the scenes, enacting grotesque ideas that American soldiers - indeed, Allied soldiers - went to war to stamp out almost 80 years ago.
Stephen Miller must be further exposed and excised before his cancer overtakes the body politic.
11
Imagine that Congressional legislation, bureaucracy, and ineptitude has stonewalled and slowed the terrible policies of this administration. It's amazing how people like Steven Miller attempts to push ridiculous illegal policies who are too incompetent to realize that the laws in place will likely be challenged by 100 lawsuits. This is what happens when we don't vote and allow anti-intellectuals and racists to be elected.
4
The irony is stunning: Stephen Miller, who bears a resemblance to Joseph Goebbels, and is the descendant, just two generations removed, of immigrants fleeing persecution is the promulgator of this misguided and uninformed policy.
Mr. Miller, look into the mirror and your own past. Then, take a moment and think about how you might not even exist were it not for the generosity and open arms of the United States of America.
171
@BA One of the qualities of civil discourse is the discussion of actions and thoughts. Not so much another's physical appearance.
This light bulb-headed fool is another of the Trump cabal that care not a whit for the American people but rather is the court jester whose only aim is to keep Trump in power and his own job secure. Hurry November 202!
6
I hate tp keep pointing out the obvious; but does anyone by now not realize this whole Trump gang of vipers cares not one iota whether their poisonous policies are questionable, impractical, unethical, unreasonable, or even illegal. The KING has spoken. Make it SO! Or off with your heads. Glad to see American democracy has come so far after nearly 250 years to the point where they have elected their own version of George III, to make the citizens realize the Oligarch`s have now usurped the Constitution and the laws of the land shall be ignored at His Majesty`s demands. What amazes me are the endless number of Toadies who keep showing up to do Trump`s bidding...no matter what?!
40
@Greg Hodges Miller and Mnuchin and Mulvaney and Barr say to His Heinous: "Go ahead and break the law and dare Justice to come after you. You can't be indicted while you're President and Pelosi says she won't impeach. McConnell has stacked the courts, you've stacked the Supreme court and your Attorney General has totally got your back. And in the meantime Republicans in Congress (and their friends) will rig the elections so the People can't vote. You got this."
10
Miller's ideology is abhorrent and counters everything this country stands for. How conviently he ignores his Jewish heritage.
21
Steven Miller should be in jail, not in the White House. What he stands for and promotes are crimes against humanity.
73
this guy is really giving people my age a bad name. plus those dead eyes.... *shudders uncontrollably*
18
If this bigot Stephen Miller had his immigration policies in place when his family was entering the USA at the turn of the 20th century he would never have been born.
They wouldn’t have been allowed to enter and annilated in Russia.
Self hating bigot.
56
Given all of the privileges of an upper middle class white suburban upbringing, what has it been, one wonders, that has so warped the soul and brutalized the nature of the young Mr. Miller. Could it be that his hankering to be accepted by his ideological soul mates, white supremacist and neo-Nazi types, eventually floundered because of his Jewish background?
If so, association with Donald Trump's racist and xenophobic cruelty must have come to the young and ambitious Mr. Miller as the best consolation prize.
19
Stephen Miller is an evil force, a hideous unfeeling creep who is afraid of anyone who doesn’t look like him. And even some who do. He is a Jewish anti-Semite, a self-hating Jew who has forgotten his own history. He has betrayed his parents and grandparents, who saw the promise of America for all. He spreads hate and fear wherever he goes. And he tried to do it in cover of darkness and keep his own tracks covered. Time to shine the light brightly on this terrible force and rid him from any hall of power.
28
Miller, the resident White Nationalist in the Oval Office will soon suggest the wholesale murder of all colored people in the US be they immigrants or citizens. His belief that only the pure white race should reside in this country is his only driving force.
If you think this is impossible and that rational citizens will not allow it, look at the cages holding children, families being separated, and people tattooed (yes, tattooed!) with their “immigration details.”
He might just get his way as the day Trump got elected, racism has become something to be proud of.
13
@Opinioned!
With a pardon from Trump, of course.
2
We have to do something about all the illegal immigrant, welfare queen, ISIS sympathizing, climate fascists sneaking into this country to steal our below minimum wage dishwashing and fruit-picking jobs while committing fewer crimes than average Americans. It’s too much.
36
@Andrew --- Please explain that your comment is sarcastic. Trumpists will see only approval of their utterly unethical, illegal tactics and goals.!
6
Does anyone in the GOP have any common sense?
There are 7,000,000 job openings in the US which cannot be filled by American workers.
Think about that
165
@MBC,
Agree. Not even one American citizen (not one!!!) is willing to be the First Lady /Third Wife.
19
@MBC Limit illegal immigration, raise the pay to higher than slave wages, and give those jobs to American citizens.
2
@MBC Unfilled, like the H1b visa scam? Where there are plenty of legal US workers pushed out and ignored so that corporations can bring in someone for reduced pay? They need to pay living wages, appropriate wages for the value and skill of the workers.
Then, too, don't most of the jobs require some education? And isn't the education of these illegal immigrants somewhat lacking? This is where the unaudited failure of US aid money is astounding - the almost complete lack of education.
1
This is what you get with a president who's being 'advised,' manipulated really, by an off the rails hubristic ideologue pushing his own personal bigotry and animus.
370
@European American In addition to several international actors with their own agenda and the money to back it up.
11
It is hard to say who is the second most evil person in the Trump administration (Trump is the winner). Miller's policies and actions are more cruel than any I've seen. Sarah Sanders who justifies everything the administration does. Mick Mulvaney... Why do they think they are helping our country with these policies? Do these people have consciencs? How do they sleep at night?
174
@robert zitelli: Robert; after 2 years of Trumpocracy; do you not realize by now that the very definition of Republican is "Thou shall not have a conscience on anything that is deemed humanitarian!"
21
@robert zitelli
Identifying trump's right-hand demon is as challenging as identifying the Beatles' best song. Too many contenders! I would throw DeVos and Wheeler for serious consideration.
17
@zitelli, they sleep just fine, and that's what is so frightening...
17
So Miller is indeed the architect of Trump's white supremacist immigration policies. Neither of them have any inkling of the law, nor do they care.
79
One day, the NYT may realize it’s not President Trump that Stephen Miller is “channeling” — Ever since Steve Bannon started to get more press coverage, Mr. Miller has been the puppeteer of Mr. Trump. When major news outlets finally start to give Mr. Miller big headlines and boldface treatment, only then will his influence wane inside the White House. Make it clear who is running the show — and that it’s not President Trump — and watch how quickly his star fades.
200
A chilling read. The one small glimmer of hope here is that Trump has been unable to find competent people to carry out his most hateful and legally questionable orders.
He may yet find them - high-functioning bureaucrats and lawyers who also harbor deep anti-immigrant views - but until then, one can hope that sheer incompetence will continue to be Trump's biggest hurdle. Otherwise, it's up to the courts and the House to look out for our nation's ideals.
51
Reading this article it is clear that the illegal immigrants are constantly pulling a fast one, taking advantage of old rules. Nothing wrong with Trump and Miller pointing this out and looking for a solution.
6
@rudolf Parents willing to risk life and limb for themselves and their children in a desperate attempt for survival is 'pulling a fast one'? Have you no ability to feel any compassion for our fellow human beings?
23
First, the immigrants are not illegal. They are seeking asylum, which is legal in every country on the planet.
Second, the immigrants are not "pulling a fast one." They are desperately seeking safety and a place to live productive lives.
Third, this administration has made a bad situation worse with their racist xenophobia.
55
@rudolf Uhhm yeah ... those uneducated migrants, fleeing poverty and violence on foot have outsmarted the entire legal machinery of the U.S. Government presently headed by the most stable genius we've ever had.
22
May I not imitate what is evil but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God. (3 John 11)
14
A man as despicable as Steven Miller must have some things in his past that he doesn't want brought to the attention of the American people. NYT reporters and researchers are some of the best in the world. I wish they would have a look into Miller's past to see what he's done or what was done to him to cause him to be the awful, low down, lying person he has become. trump is bad enough without having a vile, hateful accomplice encouraging him to do further harm to people who are trying desperately to escape to a place where they can earn a living and raise their families. To my mind, Miller is a sick evil man and the fact that he has trump's ear is frightening.
110
Radical ideologists like Mr.Miller are entertaining in political discussions - but are always a failure when granted the power to convert their twisted and obviously hate driven ideas into policies and law - often with horrible consequences for the targets of their rage. Mr.Trump and Mr.Miller had >2 years to come up with practical solutions specifically for the southern border and simply failed. Travel bans, caging children, cutting immigration rates for refugees, slowing down the asylum process, high jacking congress to secure “wall” money through a national emergency and now firing basically all leading immigration officials are not signs of leadership but indicators of stunning incompetence on the highest level in the White House. Becoming more radical - which seems to be the intention of the President and Mr.Miller - will only make it worse and will be a massive burden for the re-election attempt of Mr.Trump.
33
Stephen Miller is evil, and Republicans will not be able to say "we didn't know".
118
@Patriot
Oh they will play the Nuremberg trial card...we were just following orders.
The GOP/NRA of the USA
12
@Patriot If one looks back at history at another country's leaders that practiced nativism and supremacy in its early years which led to many deaths the supporters and those carrying out the orders said the same thing-we didn't know.
Is this nation, under the reins of Miller's nativist and white supremacist views, becoming that country I speak of?
6
Those of us who work for DHS, including my own boss who reports directly to the Secretary, are engrossed by the spectacle of purges not seen since Hitler's NIght of the Long Knives in 1938 that took out Ernst Roehm. The vacuum of legality, morality, ethics is visible. Telling McAleenan, an attorney and someone who swore an oath to uphold the Constitution as we all did, that he can break the law with impunity is suborning high crimes. Surely there are legal means to prevent immigration, means that DHS needs to resort to and educate the childish Trump that we must uphold the law, particularly in view of the excessive and legally actionable ugliness of the lawless Nielsen's separations of families at the border.
520
@Tournachonadar
Would you consider modifying your comment to include "Surely there are legal means to regulate immigration..." instead of "prevent immigration"? Without immigration we will become a nation like Japan with a greying top heavy population pyramid of seniors.
32
@Tournachonadar Thank you for taking the high road and staying true to your oath of office.
37
@Tournachonadar
I gave you a 'recommended' because of your reference to "The Night Of The Long Knives".
Thank you.
I suspect that Miller - and Trump - haven't a clue that everything they are up to has been done before..... and is remembered. That's the problem with being ruled by the grossly ignorant. They are unaware that what they do has already been done once as 'history', and, that they are repeating it, is merely 'farce'.
15
Young Stephen seems wise beyond his years in terms of surviving in the viper’s best that is the Trump WH.the body count this far includes McMaster, Jelly, Mattis, Gary Cohn et. al.
The thing is, when it comes to immigration and possibly other stuff as well, President Stephen Miller is our true President.
I propose we start flooding the airwaves with the truth about President Stephen Miller. That alone should get Trump ticked off.
Both heartless, soulless, potentially law breaking, hatefilled, white nationalist hypocrites.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/amp/story/2018/08/13/stephen-miller-is-an-immigration-hypocrite-i-know-because-im-his-uncle-219351
131
Only in this administration would an unfortunate-looking malicious crank be taken seriously and given influence to implement his worst ideas. When this administration is finally ended, we will need a Nuremberg-like process to understand how something so counter to American law and ideals could occur and to minimize the prospects of it ever recurring.
315
@Jack
I agree that a time will come when a process like a Nuremberg trial should be held by law-abiding, decent, citizens so that what is happening will never happen again.
As for temporary housing while those seeking to stay here get a lawful hearing, why not Mar -A-Lago or Trump Tower or any of his unoccupied mansions?
21
I can’t decide what’s more appropriate, “all the best people” or “some very fine people on both sides.”
3
Our "leadership" is in a crisis of cruelty and illegality. Nielsen has been sent off to suffer the results of her attempts to please Trump who apparently kowtows to Miller's whims. With every step these vicious people take, our country sinks to another low . . . a lower low.
This border idiocy, is another fighting point confronting the Democrats in the next election and with candidates to the x power, solutions are hard to consolidate.
Awaken Congress and voters alike. We have work t do.
27
Remember during the 2016 election when all the Trump supporters when on and on about the need to have a "businessman" in the White House?
"Drain the Swamp" they said. "Lock her up" they shouted.
Now the businessman spends his days on "executive time" while Rome burns.
Who could not have seen this coming? I tire of all the hand wringing over the woes of "flyover country" and the need to reach out to the Trump supporters who feel they are the "Real Americans". Donald Trump was a known quantity with a long record of questionable behavior and sleazy business practices. They voted for him anyway and now they can't admit their mistake. The Republican Party is silent because they fear the wrath of the uninformed, fearful, prejudiced, xenophobic and blissfully ignorant "base voters".
Wake up America! This episode of "The Apprentice" is coming to and end. The ratings are terrible and you can cancel it.
669
@mike the Republican establishment is silent because they play a long game, or at least think they are.
They care little for the White House and it’s trappings, they want the governerships , the want federal judges and mostly they covet the Supreme Court.
With those they can ban abortion, break unions, deny health care, welfare, social programs , gut Medicare and Social Security and education.
Then America can be great again ( in their eyes) white rich overlords governing the masses.
The Republicans are not afraid of trump and trumpism...the need it.
91
@mike: real Americans are the melting pot in New York City and Los Angeles. Flyover country folks are about as relevant to the 21st century as old adding machines and type writers. Adopt of perish.
15
@MoneyRules It is silly for any group for Americans to claim the mantle of "real Americans" for themselves. It is especially stupid for Americans in NYC and California to do that as those attitudes simply aid Republicans in holding on to political gains outside of those areas.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/january-february-march-2019/to-take-back-the-map-democrats-need-a-plan-to-revive-heartland-cities/
1
"And behind that purge is Mr. Miller, the 33-year-old White House senior adviser."
Trump following Mr. Miller tells me again that Obama was right when he said Mr. Trump does not have the temperament nor the judgment to be POTUS.
384
It is long past time for the GOP to change. If they want to get anything done, they must move towards the middle and learn how to compromise. Obviously this will not happen with the current lineup of bombastic ego driven incompetents.
15
Trump, Miller, and the other cruel and misguided fools nominally in charge at the moment will live to see the errors of their ways. In the not to distant future, we will look back on these times as a stark warning of how far off track from the course of our formerly noble goals we can get...If the rest of us with hearts & brains & empathy can rise up together to get rid of them. Heaven help us and the rest of the world if we don't !
27
"Czar," now there's a good idea. Trump can name himself Czar and cut the remaining pretense. Tsarina Ivanka is perfect! This would give a nod to Czar Putin to establish his monarchy too. A fitting end to failed democracies and a fine beginning to the new darker ages.
19
@Lon Newman
If you recall, it was Obama who had the "czars".
He also asked Medevedev to be patient, as he'll have more flexibility after the election.
That wasnt just a nod, that was a direct slobbering.
Miller is now doing what Trump should be doing. Another ACTING as president. He should not be the acting pres on immigration as he has no soul and is evil. Nothing but a disaster will come and Trump will b e very sorry he had Miller acting in his stead.
10
'A regulation to deny welfare benefits to immigrants — a change Mr. Miller repeatedly predicted would be “transformative”'
Transformative?
Mr. Miller's nakedly intentional cruelty verges on sadism.
62
@Chip Steiner
The Times needs to clarify this statement. Federal law prohibits undocumented immigrants from receiving any federal entitlements, including "welfare benefits." By stating it this way, the Times is reproducing the myth that undocumented immigrants are stealing Americans' benefits.
10
..Mr. Miller wanted asylum officers to ignore the law...
He is one creepy guy and he looks the part. He was condemned by his own Rabbi and he appears to be devoid of morality or compassion. Even worse, Donald (who is mentally and emotionally stunted) actually takes his advice and is sewing divisive chaos and hatred. So much damage is being done to our country by Trump and so-called advisers like Miller. We all know that Trump is a fake president. Shine some daylight on Miller and like a toxic mold exposed to UV radiation he will wither and his influence will diminish. Its likely that his political future is dim and he will ultimately be treated like the pariah that he actually is.
57
And no one in the room had the simple common decency to simply say, “these are unethical acts and we will not proceed.” Cowardice knows no bounds in this White House.
100
One wonders if Mr. Miller was hired simply because he is the single most sinister-looking person on the planet.
126
@APH
"most sinister looking person on the planet"
For now - but a couple of months hanging out at Bondi Beach could change that.
1
In describing this administration's approach to immigration the anonymous officials have perfectly captured the essence of the Trump administration, which exists only to implement "policies that were legally questionable, impractical, unethical or unreasonable". Out of a misplaced sense of duty I guess they conveniently omitted cruel, bigoted and inhuman.
I wonder if we can ever undo all of the wrongs that four years of these clowns will create and if they get eight years it might not be worth even trying.
41
Guess we know who the real policy maker is and it isn't the president.
27
The "fierce idealogue" label, while journalistically admirable in some respects, is really inapt as a description of someone whose white nationalist leanings have been clearly displayed for many years. That deserved reputation, and other factors, taint any administration effort to reshape our immigration practices. Bullying senior officials to engage in highly questionable actions is a poor substitute for open and deliberate fact-based efforts to amend immigration laws and regulations. Professionalism, compassion, integrity and honor seem in short supply by all involved.
151
@MikeBoma. And who knows what “advice” DT got from Putin?
1
First, the headline for this report was more editorial than factual, and would lead one to believe that this was an op-ed piece.
And one of the main points in the story is more frightening than the headline suggests. It is not what Trump sees, it is what Miller has been pushing that has triggered Trump's responses which are neither thought out, researched for legality, or rational. If this White House had a real president occupying it, perhaps agendas and policies (whether we agree with them or not) would be in the realm of governing. Instead we have people who have not been elected, people running agencies that have not been vetted or confirmed, and a president who is trying to keep headlines that obscure his misdeeds from being focused on.
30
It is obvious that Trump has no respect for the law and is prepared to circumvent it if necessary, and absolutely no understanding of the reasons that laws governing who may apply for asylum were enacted by congress. The man has no respect for anything, not for the constitution or the legislature or the people who do respect the laws.
63
@RHR
Really? I was wondering what was wrong.
There is way too much verbal direction in this White House. And, as is apparent in this article, when confronted with the request to confirm that illegal direction has been given, the White House denies it. As a result, too many people are losing their jobs and their reputations. This has to stop.
When given illegal orders, government officials should insist on specific written direction. accompanied by a promise of pardon by Trump himself. If and when Congress ever awakens from its decade long slumber and decides to hold people accountable, those who tried vainly to resist should not become sacrificial lambs .
8
@Tom Q
But who among the immigration minions has shown resistance?
3
This administration simply doesn’t understand our system of government. They will continue to flail and fail. God bless the USA.
6
Donald Trump doesn’t give the impression of being an effective “policy driven” President when Stephen Miller seems to be driving most policy decisions. Who elected Stephen Miller to be President of the United States of America?
250
A bunch of racists in the South and Midwest.
23
@Greg. Most especially that 70,000 in Wi and PA.
6
Welfare benefits? I worked in public assistance for 40 years and the only welfare benefits an immigrant could receive was an extremely time limited benefit from the refugee resettlement program if the immigrant had refugee status or TANF benefits if the refugee had children and was considered a battered woman or victim of the sex trade. Every other family needed to be legal permanent residents and there was a several year waiting period on that as well. Medicaid and SNAP have the same rules. Of course US citizen children were eligible. So what are they talking about other than continuing the lies they spread on a regular basis. I have been out of the business for several years but I don't believe anything has changed lifting these restrictions.
429
@Lois velez
Perhaps not in NJ, but NY and CA just passed a law approving free health benefits to illegal immigrants. Not sure about the rest of the country, but NY also just approved instate tuition for illegal immigrants. Sanctuary cities also offer drivers licenses. No, illegal immigrants themsleles still cant access EBT and medicaid, although they do through the American born children.
And those are just the ones I know about.
And then you wonder why foreigners, especially poor foreigners are swarming at the border, and attempting to enter illegally.
Democrats are incentivising them to come.
25
@Sports Medicine Do you ready want a person with Ebola not treated, because they are an immigrant? Do we really want to deny healthcare to sick people? Have you ever taken care of a sick child?
115
@Sports Medicine
Immigrants come to America because it is the land of promise. It's fine if you want to give Democrats credit for that.
87
There is something wrong with our initial screening process if it advances claims that a in the end are rejected at an 80% rate. In the years until final determination children are born and immigrate child go to school, at the local taxpayers expense, and they compete for affordable housing. They flood the low skill labor pool which depresses wages. Is it possible to have empathy for these people and also believe this is a crisis that is harmful to the nation?
11
@hannstv It is easy to blame the immigrants - but I think it is more than time to be honest here: the vast majority of illegal immigrants are getting a regular job in this country and numerous businesses and employers are happy to take the extra-profit they can make paying low wages with no benefits for these often hard working people. The prospect of landing one of these jobs is the driving force behind illegal immigration. It would be easy to go after the employers and to come up with massive penalties for everyone being caught hiring illegals. Such policies or corresponding laws would gain broad support in Congress. Did Mr.Trump and his team come up with such? Absolutely not!
4
The Stephen Millers of the United States wonder why persecuted people have a real opportunity to seek asylum in this country. It's called democracy. Democracy and the democratic principles upon which our constitution are based are inconveniences for this adminstration. "Preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States"... This president pledged to do that (on that sunshiny day a couple of years ago when those in attendance held umbrellas over their heads to keep the sun's glare out of their eyes). I'm still waiting for Trump to acknowledge that such a document actually exists.
37
Excellent reporting to tell the public what is going on. As for "...the hundreds of thousands of migrant families from Central America who have surged toward the southwestern border, fleeing violence and poverty", I'd offer that the concern is (1) hyped for political reasons, so we can expect more of it until 2020, and (2) The violence would decline sharply if we legalized all drugs to take the profit out of the illegal market. Treat U.S. drug abuse -- not drug use -- as the medical problem it is.
7
Mr. Miller, in the same vein as Mr. Trump, displays childish behavior and simplistic thinking as he berates immigration and border protection officials for not implementing campaign slogans quickly enough for his liking.
Mr. Miller, along with Mr. Trump, needs to be escorted away from the reins of power, where he can examine the origins of his hatreds and anger, should he ever have the courage to do so.
19
nasty things,: current laws, regulations and the courts who uphold them
but what is an honest ethical person suppose to do when the valid current laws and regulations forbids an action other than legally change them
and it takes time to change the laws and regulations
of course with trump and his allies who don't act like honest ethical people, they don't care about such mere legalities
only their dictates and desires to destroy liberties and rights granted by such laws and regulations
6
People should not resign from the Trump administration. They should dare the "fire-er in chief" to fire them and state publicly the reasons why they are being fired. I think that will expose the policies, goals of the Trump administration better than after the fact comments by people who resigned "voluntarily."
19
People are a great resource in the sense that labour is a resource. We should be happily welcoming anyone who wants to come here to take our crummy jobs and low wages. We would not be complaining so much if a river of oil suddenly came pouring into the US would we?
4
So never mind third rate, this administration is last rate. Bulling people and berating them my work in the short run but will never work in the long run. If Miller is expressing displeasure at people who are unwilling to brake the law, what's next firing squads? I read these articles and I am just floored as to the non response from the so called law abiding republicans in congress who where up in arms over Obama!
52
A new day is dawning. We have just 19 months until VW (Victory in Washington) day. It is time to start stocking up on champagne.
5
This is exciting! It seems that the only way for Trump to get his way is to break the law. And we all know just how difficult it is to change the law, especially given the the largely Democratic make-up of the House. It will be amusing to watch Trump stomping on eggshells in his uncontrollable sense of frustration. Bring out the popcorn!
10
"Ms. Nielsen explained why she could not do that, citing economic and legal issues — banning migrants from seeking asylum would be against the law." Trump's ignorance of federal law is staggering, but his explosive reactions to court decisions that uphold the laws (passed by Congress) expose his disdain for the legislative process. His response--eliminating leaders who know the law--defies logic: why would "tougher" agency leaders fare any better in the courts? We elect representatives whose job it is to legislate. If a president doesn't understand that, s/he is dangerous to all of us. If current immigration laws are inadequate, start with Congress. (And good luck to you!)
36
God help us if a 33 year old firebrand is the the human expression of DT's immigration views. It doesn't take much experience in the real world to know that yelling, throwing fits and threatening people seldom has the desired effect. The person who needs to be removed is Mr. Miller.
107
I demand to see the Mueller Report.
In addition to obstruction, Don the Con is willing to break the law by prodding his staff to do it and then proposing a pardon in the event one of them actually takes him up on it.
Inciting others to break the law is a crime. The Grifter in Chief is putting himself in a precarious position by his taunts. The fact that he made them must be an impeachable offense. The havoc he would like to create is not worth the wait.
31
So, the giant turn over is because they wouldn't be cruel enough, swift enough, as demanded, not by Trump, but by Miller? Trump needs Miller because he enjoys and respects Miller's amazing level of ghoulishness. Trump likely wishes he could hit that level, but he's too busy tweeting own-the-libs policy to satisfy his base.
13
Define irony:
While this administration has attempted to forestall legal asylum attempts in an apparent effort to stem immigration to the USA, they have all but ignored the ongoing destruction of jobs in the IT sector through the H-1B visa program as it is used by numerous Indian firms to send often barely qualified resources to take over between 60,000 - 85,000 jobs here every year.
And these are well-paying jobs in IT - often in the six-figure range - mainly replacing +50 y/o Americans who already have well-developed communication, business, and technical skills.
Some simple reforms have been made so far to favor masters' degree holders, but many of us who currently compete against this tide on a daily basis realize it only really favors existing diploma mills.
33