Stephen Miller Pushed For Mass Arrests Of Migrant Families Across America

Senior Advisor to the president Stephen Miller is seen during an immigration event with President Trump in the South Court Auditorium, next to the White House, on June 22, 2018 in Washington, DC. Image by MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

By Aiden Pink May 14, 2019

White House senior advisor Stephen Miller advocated for a secret plan to conduct a “blitz” arrest of thousands of migrant families, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The plan, which would have required coordinated arrests in people’s homes in 10 of the largest cities in the country, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, was nixed by then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen earlier this year. She and Ronald Vitiello, then the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, were “concerned about a lack of preparation by I.C.E. agents, the risk of public outrage and worries that it would divert resources from the border,” the Post reported.

ICE had an initial removal list of 2,500 adults and children, but the plan could have resulted in the arrests of 10,000 people, the Post reported. Miller and other immigration hardliners said the public visibility of their plan would serve as a deterrent to would-be migrants.

Nielsen and Vitiello were forced out in April, with the President saying he needed “tougher” border enforcement. “Miller has told the president that some members of his administration don’t have his best interests at heart, and that they are too worried about their own reputations to carry out his agenda effectively,” the Post reported, citing current and former administration officials. CBS reported in April that Miller was instrumental in Nielsen’s ouster.

Miller, who is Jewish, is one of the White House’s biggest proponents of immigration restriction and hardline treatments of undocumented immigrants. He was a key architect of the administration’s family separation policy for migrants and those seeking asylum.

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter at @aidenpink.