Holy shit, are members of Congress really going to let themselves get cornered and let their immigration negotiations get sabotaged by the ghoulish Stephen Miller, a former Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III aide and current White House policy advisor who is so creepy that a mysterious van parked on a dark street would speed off if he walked by?
Here’s one thing even Republicans negotiating an immigration deal agree on: Trump aide Stephen Miller is hurting their chances of getting anything done.
They blame him for insisting the administration gets approval for an unrealistic number of immigration policies in exchange for protections for young people brought into the country illegally as children. They loathe his intensity when delivering his hardline views. And they accuse him of coordinating with outside advocacy groups that oppose their efforts.
“It's no secret that he’s an obstacle to getting anything done on immigration,” said a Republican House member involved in the immigration talks.
We know what kind of immigration agenda Miller wants, and it’s the version favored by his old college buddy Richard Spencer, the punchable neo-Nazi and leader of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. That means a slash to legal immigration, a stupid border wall, mass deportations, and, certainly, no DREAM Act.
With a hatred of people of color that stretches back to his middle school days, Miller trying to derail the DREAM Act is to be expected. But as we saw in talks this week when Donald Trump nearly agreed to Senator Dianne Feinstein’s call for a clean DREAM Act before being pulled back by Congressman Kevin McCarthy, Trump will sign anything. Which means, we need to be louder than this creep.
Not that it’ll be an easy task in any way. According to McClatchy, over a dozen sources from both sides of the aisle have said that Miller “is making already tough negotiations more difficult … most spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the president’s aide”:
The House Republican lawmaker said it’s widely viewed that “to move past the speed bumps, there’s no option but to kind of get him out of the way.”
Yet Miller’s close relationship to the president, which spans the campaign and transition, means they are unlikely to do or say anything to get him out of the negotiations.
Some Republicans say Miller has tried to poison the deal with policies he knows will never survive a vote in the Senate, where Republicans hold a slim majority and are constantly searching for Democratic votes. “He’s trying to craft a deal he knows is not viable because he doesn’t want a deal,” said a Republican strategist who has long sought an immigration overhaul.
Miller declined to be interviewed for this story. Two senior White House officials described Miller as a policy expert Trump values who has a wealth of knowledge and expertise on immigration. “He is trying to make a deal,” one official said. “He doesn’t want to sabotage a deal.”
Sure, Jan. This is a man so twisted and hateful that back when most of us were at Hot Topic buying magnetic earrings and secretly listening to Spice Girls CDs (okay, that part is a little autobiographical), Miller was dumping childhood friends for being Latino and complaining to administrators about bilingual announcements and diversity days. Which brings up another disturbing point—the Republicans who have nice things to say about Miller:
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, issued a statement: “Stephen is an incredibly bright mind on immigration policy and reflects the administration’s focus in fixing our broken immigration system. He has been of tremendous value for members on the hill and for the administration during this debate.”
And in the fourth office, an aide to House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, said Miller has been up front about what the White House position is and that his interactions with the office had been “constructive recently.” A longtime Ryan staffer who works on immigration issues speaks to Miller regularly, sometimes even daily, the aide said.
Good lord. The point is, this pipsqueak needs to go, and members of Congress who are fighting for Dreamers in good faith need to crank their lobbying up to 11. And not that he deserves the benefit of the doubt, but if White House Chief of Staff John Kelly really wants to give off the impression that he’s the one in charge, he should pull a Steve Bannon and give Miller the heave-ho. Unless he wants to look like the big tough general who got outwitted and outplayed by a geeky little Nazi.
