Trump's Immigration Policy Weasel Stephen Miller: Pushing and Proposing Bad Policy

White House Policy “Guru” Stephen Miller

(So they say)

Immigrant bashing on a new low level within the White House… timeline follows this video introduction to Miller:

CNN reporter confronts Miller on immigration policy proposal – quite stunning is Miller’s lame response:

On January 11 - Setting the Scene: The now infamous meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers where Trump denigrated African nations and Haiti.

Trump, earlier in the day, had invited Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham to discuss the deal the pair struck to protect the roughly 800,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients who were brought to the United States illegally as children and to beef up border security.

Durbin and Graham said Trump's tone changed in the roughly two hours between the call where he invited them and their meeting. 

They also felt ambushed: The meeting that they thought would be them and the president included White House aides, like Miller, and conservatives like House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Sen. Tom Cotton.

In the meeting, the once open-to-negotiation Trump was dismissive of protecting the DACA recipients and fumed about the United States' immigration policies, reportedly labeling places in Africa as shithole countries and asking why the United States was not welcoming more people from Norway, as opposed to places like Haiti.

Then on January 16: Days after Trump's comments in the Oval Office roiled Washington, both Durbin and Graham were eager to blame Trump's staff – namely Miller – for the blow up in the Oval Office. 

Sen. Graham told reporters: “Somebody on staff gave him really bad advice. The President I saw on Tuesday is the guy I play golf with. Something happened ... This has turned into a sh*t-show.”

Sen. Durbin was more direct telling reporters: “Any effort to kill immigration reform usually has Mr. Miller's fingerprints on it.”

Then on January 19:  As the government shutdown loomed, Trump invited Senate DEM Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to the White House for what ended up being an over-hour-long meeting on funding the government and immigration reform. Schumer, Trump, and their Chiefs of Staff sat in the Oval Office, where, according to Schumer, he offered to fund the military and put Trump's signature wall around the US-Mexico border “on the table.

Schumer also claimed that Trump agreed to back a short-term funding agreement – likely four or five days – to give negotiators more time on immigration. Schumer then said that Trump changed his mind and called him a few hours later to spike the plan and propose a three-week deal; not a “few days” as was agreed upon at their meeting.

Then Schumer took to the Senate floor and said in part: “Negotiating with this White House is like negotiating with Jell-O. As you take one step forward, the hard right forces the President three steps back.”

Those hard-right forces, in Schumer’s mind and that of other Democrats on Capitol Hill, includes Miller and Trump’s Chief of Staff John Kelly.

Then on January 20 - Saturday – the first day of the shutdown: The White House had had enough with the conventional wisdom that “Trump wants an immigration deal while Miller and others pushed him right.”

That feeling deepened when Sen. Graham opened up on Miller to reporters on Capitol Hill, saying: “I've talked with the President, his heart is right on this issue, I think he's got a good understanding of what will sell, and every time we have a proposal it's only yanked back by staff members. And as long as Stephen Miller is in charge of negotiating immigration we're going nowhere. He's been an outlier for years.”

That off/on-again comments by Graham, a Trump critic at times, annoyed the White House and elicited this response from White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley who said on Saturday, parroting Graham: “As long as Sen. Graham chooses to support legislation that sides with people in this country illegally and unlawfully instead of our own American citizens, we're going nowhere. He's been an outlier for years.”

Then on January 22: Miller has yet to comment on the attack leveled against him by Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill. But the White House press office bolted to his defense as an agreement to fund the government loomed on Monday, when Sarah Sanders said in part: “I think that's a sad and desperate attempt by a few people trying to tarnish a staffer. Stephen's not here to push his agenda. He's here to push the President's agenda like everybody in this building.”

Then Raj Shah, Principal Deputy White House Press Secretary, speaking with CNN after lawmakers on Capitol Hill struck a deal, echoed Sanders’ words saying: “Those charges are, frankly, ridiculous and they are a little insulting. This is the President of the United States. He is setting the agenda.”

My 2 cents: From what I have seen and read and heard about Stephen Miller, cite:

•  He is Trump’s senior advisor for policy.

•  He was previously the communications director for then-Alabama Sen. and now AG Jeff Sessions.

•  He was also a press secretary to Republican Representatives: Michele Bachmann and John Shadegg.

•  Miller wrote Trump's inaugural address.

•  He has been a key adviser since the early days of Trump's presidency and was a chief architect of Trump's EO restricting immigration from seven Muslim countries.

•  On February 12, 2017, he appeared to question the power of the judiciary to limit the executive's role in setting immigration policy.

•  Miller also has on multiple occasions made false or unsubstantiated claims regarding public policy.

He is the wrong man at the wrong place and certainly at the wrong time, but Trump apparently loves him… why? Probably a mirror image I suspect.

Miller is a bigot and more so, a racist – hands down – the facts speak for themselves.

Thanks for stopping by.