17 Jewish Groups Call On White House To Fire Adviser Stephen Miller

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By JTA February 11, 2018

(JTA) – Seventeen Jewish groups, including the left-leaning J Street, called on the White House to dismiss Stephen Miller as senior policy adviser.

The organizations, including American Jewish World Service, Americans for Peace Now and T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, issued the call in an open letter they sent Thursday to the White House chief of staff, Gen. John Kelly.

The co-authors wrote that Miller, who favors an immigration reform he said would benefit applicants who would assimilate more easily into American society than others, has “extreme viewpoints and advocacy of racist policies.”

“As Jews, we are in solidarity with immigrants and refugees and believe that our nation must be a refuge and welcoming home for new Americans,” they wrote. Miller “has been an obstacle to passing widely-supported, bipartisan, popular, badly-needed immigration policy changes throughout his time in the administration.”

Miller, the authors added, was “the architect” of two executive measures limiting admission into the United States from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea, as well as some Venezuelan officials. Federal judges issued separate temporary restraining orders on those measures.

Last month, Miller said his plans for a new immigration policy mean “more assimilation, higher wages, more economic opportunity and better prospects for immigrants and U.S.-born alike.”

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