Writing in Mother Jones, Noah Lanard puts the Stephen Miller email revelations into an important bigger context:
In a normal administration, the views laid out in Miller’s emails would be disqualifying. In a Trump administration, it makes him essential. In fact, many of the opinions he laid out in the emails have become part of the policies Miller has helped enact in the White House, from cutting refugee admissions to record lows to separating families at the border.
Just look at some of the immigration-related developments and news from the past few days. They are just the most recent instances of an unrelenting Trump administration’s drive to keep out and kick out immigrants and refugees.
- The Washington Post reports, “A Trump administration strategy led to the child migrant backup crisis at the border”: “When thousands of migrant children ended up stranded in U.S. Border Patrol stations last spring, President Trump’s administration characterized the crisis as a spontaneous result of the record crush of migrants overwhelming the U.S. immigration system. But the backup also was a result of policy decisions that officials knew would ensnare unaccompanied minors in bureaucratic tangles and leave them in squalid conditions, according to dozens of interviews and internal documents viewed by The Washington Post.”
- As the AP reports in a story entitled, “US held record number of migrant children in custody in 2019” – “This month, new government data shows…an unprecedented 69,550 migrant children held in U.S. government custody over the past year, enough infants, toddlers, kids and teens to overflow the typical NFL stadium. That’s more children detained away from their parents than any other country, according to United Nations researchers. And it’s happening even though the U.S. government has acknowledged that being held in detention can be traumatic for children, putting them at risk of long-term physical and emotional damage.”
- The Wall Street Journal reports that the administration plans to increase the fee to apply for DACA, asylum and naturalization – an overt effort to make legal immigration channels less accessible. Fees proposed include an increase of $275 (a 65% increase) for DACA recipients to renew their two-year legal permits; a new $50 fee to apply for asylum; and an increase to $1,170 (an 83% increase) for immigrants seeking citizenship.
The administration has a long and disgusting record of laying waste to America’s tradition of welcome.
