'Stephen Miller didn't cut ties with the extremists when he joined the government — he brought them with him.'
Stephen Miller, Donald Trump's point man for anti-immigrant policies, regularly worked with extremists in the federal government to accomplish shared goals, according to a Tuesday report from Rolling Stone.
Miller himself has close ties to white nationalists and a history of supporting racist policies. Miller is one of Trump's closest and most trusted advisers, was the architect of Trump's Muslim ban, and played an integral role in the disastrous family separation policy in the summer of 2018.
Emails reviewed by Rolling Stone show Miller worked specifically with Jon Feere, a senior adviser at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Before arriving at ICE, Feere worked for the Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigrant hate group, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
Feere and Miller reportedly discussed using federal resources to highlight anti-immigrant messaging; attacks on Democratic politicians; and who to hire to fast-track their shared agenda. At one point, Feere recommended a person for a position within the Social Security Administration to "help with information sharing issues."
Experts told Rolling Stone that access to Social Security information could help ICE's efforts to deport more immigrants. Feere even suggested a title for the person: "Senior Advisor or similar [which] will ensure he has some clout over there."
The emails were obtained by American Oversight, an ethics watchdog organization, through a Freedom of Information Act request and provided to Rolling Stone.
"Stephen Miller didn't cut ties with the extremists when he joined the government — he brought them with him," Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight, told Rolling Stone.
The Rolling Stone report comes on the heels of a November investigation by SPLC's Hatewatch project that revealed Miller's history of promoting white supremacist literature and racist anti-immigration stories to conservative media outlets, both prior to joining the Trump administration and after.
Miller used his government email address while working as an aide to then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), as well as a personal Hotmail account, to send the messages.
Cascading evidence of Miller's extreme anti-immigrant sentiment has led to calls for his removal on Capitol Hill. Led by Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), 27 senators sent a letter to the White House earlier this month demanding Miller's dismissal.
The leaked emails from Hatewatch showed Miller is driven "not [by] national security" but rather "white supremacy—something that has no place in our country, federal government, and especially not the White House," the letter, first reported by HuffPost, stated.
"Mr. Miller is unfit to serve in any capacity at the White House, let alone as a senior policy adviser," it read.
The White House has so far defended Miller. In the wake of the Hatewatch report, press secretary Stephanie Grisham claimed she had not read its contents, but denounced SPLC as an "utterly-discredited, long-debunked far-left smear organization."
Hogan Gidley, the White House principal deputy press secretary, told the New York Times that Miller, who is Jewish, "loves this country and hates bigotry in all forms."
A senior White House official told the Daily Beast at the time, "Stephen is not going anywhere. The president has his back."
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
