Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

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

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

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

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. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.