- Miller wielding unprecedented power over immigration system
- Influence stems from closeness to Trump
- Miller entered second term ‘ready to rock and roll’
WASHINGTON, July 11 (Reuters) – U.S. Marines on the streets of Los Angeles. Masked immigration officers at courthouses and popular restaurants. Bans on travelers from more than a dozen countries.
For senior White House aide Stephen Miller, the architect of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, things were going according to plan.
Then the president called Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was in Los Angeles with other immigration officials in mid June, according to three former U.S. officials with knowledge of the call.
“He said: ‘We’re going to do this targeted,'” one of the three former U.S. officials said. “Everybody heard it.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement paused raids on farms, hotels, restaurants and food processing plants after the call, the former officials said. Trump was not aware of the extent of the enforcement push, one of the former officials told Reuters at the time, and “once it hit him, he pulled it back.”
The pause was short-lived. ICE rescinded the guidance days after it was issued, leaving some officials confused about how to proceed.
The episode illustrated a moment of dissonance within Trump’s immigration team, which has otherwise appeared to be in lock step on strategy, two of the former officials said. It was a sign that Miller’s no-holds-barred approach could go too far, even for the president, they said.
A White House official said there was no daylight between Miller and Trump and Miller’s approach to immigration enforcement had not made farms a primary target. The official also said the initial ICE directive pausing raids had not been authorized by top administration leaders.
Miller, 39, has long been known as obsessed with immigration but now wields immense power over multiple areas in the West Wing as deputy chief of staff for policy, an increase in influence since Trump’s 2017-2021 presidency.