Miller Dismisses DACA in Emails, Mirroring Anti-Immigrant Extremists' Views
White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller went against many Republicans when siding with white nationalists and other extremists on the issue of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, more commonly known as DACA, emails show.
In emails to Breitbart News leaked to Hatewatch, Miller said DACA recipients would contribute to altering the country鈥檚 demographics by replacing Americans born in the United States. White nationalists often promote the idea of the 鈥溾�� in their propaganda. Manifestos linked to terror suspects have cited this idea to justify acts of violence.
Anti-immigrant groups created by the late John Tanton also have advanced the theory of demographic replacement, including the Center for Immigration Studies听补苍诲听the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
Miller discussed the subject of DACA as it relates to demographic replacement in a March 10, 2015, email while criticizing former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, then widely expected to be a top GOP candidate for president in 2016. Miller condemned his fellow Republicans on the subject of immigration and also , which the 14th Amendment grants to those born or naturalized in the United States. Far-right extremists want to eliminate birthright citizenship outright.
鈥淒emanding DREAMers be given citizenship because they 鈥榢now no other home.鈥� That principle is an endorsement of perpetual birthright citizenship for the foreign-born,鈥� Miller wrote in the email, using a term to describe DACA recipients. 鈥淣ot only will the U.S.-born children of future illegal immigrants and guest workers be made automatic U.S. citizens, but their foreign-born children will too because, as [former Republican House Majority Leader Eric] Cantor said, 鈥極ur country was founded on the principle.鈥欌��
Miller added in the same thread: 鈥淛eb [Bush] has mastered the art of using immigration rhetoric to sound 鈥榤oderate鈥� while pushing the most extremist policies.鈥� In a follow-up email, Miller referred to Bush鈥檚 desire to use 鈥渋mmigration to replace existing demographics.鈥�
Miller similarly brought up DACA again in a June 29, 2015, email:
鈥淸President Barack Obama鈥檚] DACA amnesty remains in effect, which provides illegal youth (one of the single strongest pull factors for entering and remaining illegally) with both work permits and generous free cash tax credits,鈥� Miller wrote to Katie McHugh, then a Breitbart editor, with the subject line 鈥淭he Immigration Surge,鈥� warning of the growing 鈥渇oreign-born share鈥� of America鈥檚 workforce.
McHugh leaked more than 900 emails to Hatewatch that Miller sent to her from March 2015 to June 2016 to help expose what she described as the 鈥渆vil鈥� underpinnings of President Donald Trump鈥檚 immigration policies. These include rescinding DACA and separating children as young as 听from their parents at the border. McHugh said 听for publishing anti-Muslim tweets. While working for Breitbart, she was enmeshed in America鈥檚 far-right, anti-immigrant movement, but she has since renounced those views.
Miller was an aide to then-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions when most of the emails were sent. Miller has not responded to multiple requests for comment, and 听called the Southern Poverty Law Center a 鈥渓ong-debunked far- left smear organization鈥� after the series on his emails began to run. Breitbart News dismissed Hatewatch鈥檚 reports on the emails by saying that 鈥渋t is not exactly a newsflash that political staffers pitch stories to journalists.鈥�
Hatewatch previously reported that Miller showed an apparent interest in writers such as Jared Taylor听补苍诲 Jason Richwine, who have argued that Latinos are predisposed to , and that he treated nonwhite immigration with contempt throughout his correspondences with McHugh and Breitbart.
In a November 2015 email that Hatewatch has not previously published, Miller forwarded an interview with Phyllis Schlafly from far-right conspiracy website WorldNetDaily that argued 听to 鈥渟care out the people who want to undo our country.鈥�
In a July 2015 email, Miller sent an article to McHugh highlighting Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch鈥檚 criticism of Trump鈥檚 anti-immigrant rhetoric with the subject line 鈥渄on't believe your lying eyes.鈥�
Miller quoted from Murdoch鈥檚 Twitter account as stating, 鈥淢exican immigrants, as with all immigrants, have much lower crime rate than native born.鈥�
鈥淎ctually, no,鈥� Miller responded in an email to McHugh. He arguing it was time to 鈥渓ift the taboo鈥� on talking about his belief that Latino immigrants are less likely than whites to be upwardly mobile.
听
Obama, who 听in deporting undocumented immigrants, created DACA 听as a way to protect from deportation undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. Many mainstream conservatives oppose the program 鈥� not out of fears of a 鈥済reat replacement鈥� 鈥� but because they believe Obama鈥檚 .
Despite that opposition, DACA is widely perceived as having strong bipartisan support. It gives recipients an ability to work in the United States legally and obtain .
Every two years, recipients of DACA must submit renewal applications and meet a series of requirements related to education. They must avoid criminal offenses to stay in the United States. , nearly two-thirds of Republicans wanted an agreement reached on DACA that would go even further than Obama鈥檚 program 鈥� offering recipients a pathway to citizenship.
Trump announced a plan to terminate DACA on Sept. 5, 2017, noting that 鈥�.鈥� White nationalists and other far-right supporters of the president loudly praised his move. The white nationalist website VDARE published the headline 鈥淭here is no such thing as a 鈥榙eserving DREAMer鈥欌�� on the day Trump acted. (Miller had linked to VDARE in an October 2015 email听to McHugh.)
The neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer published Trump鈥檚 remarks on the subject in full 鈥� along with an illustration of him as a warrior, .
In the coming months, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the fate of the estimated 700,000 to 800,000 DACA recipients who have been living and working in the United States since childhood. , a former solicitor general under President George W. Bush, represents DACA recipients in the Supreme Court case, underscoring bipartisan efforts to protect them.
, including some conservatives, have praised DACA for stimulating entrepreneurship and reportedly adding 听to the economy. But Christopher Parker, a political science professor at the University of Washington who has written extensively on civil rights issues, told Hatewatch that the Republican Party will no longer compromise on bills that are 鈥渞eally, really conservative by any stretch of the imagination鈥� because its base is focused on a perceived loss of social status related to race.
鈥淭hey want to maintain their social prestige in America,鈥� Parker told Hatewatch, referring to Miller and his allies. 鈥淭his is not about economics anymore. They know about the economic data, but they just don鈥檛 [care].鈥�
Parker describes this attitude as a 鈥淢anichean worldview,鈥� or extreme two-sidedness without nuance 鈥� a world of black and white. According to Parker, the same animus that drives Republicans away from cutting a deal with Democrats on DACA also keeps them from speaking out about Miller鈥檚 interest in racist authors and issues related to white nationalism.
鈥淭hey see America as inexorably slipping away from them, and Stephen Miller epitomizes this,鈥� Parker said. 鈥淭hey see what鈥檚 happening with DACA as them losing their country [to nonwhite people]. And because they have embraced his Manichean worldview, they won鈥檛 compromise on anything.鈥�
Nearly 150 Democratic politicians have called for Miller鈥檚 ouster since Hatewatch first reported on his emails on Nov. 12, according to a tally by HuffPost鈥檚 Christopher Mathias, who has been . But Republicans have mostly remained silent, choosing to avoid the topic of white nationalism altogether. U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, as a Democrat, condemned white supremacy in the context of Hatewatch鈥檚 report in . Van Drew switched parties and became a Republican during the debate over Trump's impeachment.
It鈥檚 unclear what will happen to DACA recipients if the Supreme Court allows the Trump administration to end the program. But one thing is certain: They will be at risk for immediate deportation.
DACA recipient Marisol Estrada, 25, is a Georgia-based employee at an immigration law firm. Estrada鈥檚 family moved to Savannah from Mexico when she was 5, she told Hatewatch.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a disservice to the country to have me deported because I benefit this country,鈥� she said, responding to the views of Miller and others. 鈥淭his is the only country I know as home, and I would never do anything to harm it.鈥�
Estrada graduated from high school with an international baccalaureate diploma, giving her a head start of 25 college credits. She later attended Georgia Southern University and plans to go to law school. By almost any measure, she is a symbol of DACA鈥檚 success.
Estrada told Hatewatch that she attended one Young Republicans meeting before finding that some members were too extreme in their attitudes about people of color.
鈥淲ith Miller鈥檚 extreme views, I think it鈥檚 dangerous,鈥� Estrada said, referring to the mass shooting in August at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. 鈥淚t allows for white nationalist-identified people to act on their hateful thoughts. We see examples of that in El Paso. I see that [regarding incidents of racism] in my everyday life.鈥�
Editor's note: A previous version of this story included NumbersUSA as being among the groups founded by the late John Tanton. The group was in fact founded by Roy Beck, a friend and former colleague of Tanton's. Tanton provided financial support to the group early in its history. NumbersUSA denies advancing the concept of demographic replacement. Nevertheless, the group's history as a hardline anti-immigration group is well documented. We regret the lack of clarity.
Photo illustration by 人兽性交. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
