Stephen Miller Key Figure Behind Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Election Push

Stephen Miller Image by Getty Images

By Alyssa Fisher November 5, 2018

Leading up to the midterm elections, President Trump ramped up his campaign against immigration with a push from Stephen Miller, his chief policy adviser on the issue, the New York Times reported.

Remembering how stoking fears of immigration helped his 2016 presidential run, Trump looked to Miller these last two weeks for tactics in hopes of ensuring Republicans take control of Congress.

The strategies included fixating on the caravan of migrants traveling from Mexico to the United States seeking refuge from violence and poverty and suggesting “birthright citizenship” be a thing of the past.

The Jewish aide has been working to strengthen the U.S.’s immigration policies, despite his own family history. He pressed to cut the refugee program even lower, allowing 25,000 to enter the country rather than the initial agreed-upon ceiling of 45,000, Politico reported.

Miller was the face of last year’s controversial travel ban and staunchly supported the zero-tolerance policies enacted last summer, claiming it was a “simple decision” to separate families at the border.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO