'So Cruel': Rights Advocates, Biden Campaign Sound Alarm About Stephen Miller's Immigration Agenda
'So, So Cruel': Rights Advocates, Biden Campaign Sound Alarm About Immigration Agenda Stephen Miller Is Crafting for Trump's 2nd Term. According to the Democratic nominee, "This agenda is designed to do one thing only: divide our communities with cheap, xenophobic rhetoric, and demonize those seeking to make legitimate asylum claims." Common Dreams, Oct. 31, 2020.
Immigrant rights advocates along with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his supporters responded with alarm to reporting this week that Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump, is plotting how to "rev up Trump's restrictive immigration agenda" and is ready to "unleash executive orders deemed too extreme for a president seeking reelection" in the event of a Biden loss next week.
NBC News reported Friday that Miller, speaking as an adviser to the president's campaign, laid out four top priorities in a 30-minute call Thursday:
"limiting asylum grants, punishing and outlawing 'sanctuary cities,' expanding the so-called travel ban with tougher screening for visa applicants, and slapping new limits on work visas." Implementing these policies would require a mix of legislation and executive action.
Biden's director of Latino media Jennifer Molina responded by declaring, "We are going to win this election so that people like Stephen Miller don't get the chance to write more xenophobic policies that dishonor our American values."
The former vice president, for his part, said in a statement Friday that the agenda outlined by Miller represents "4 more years of hateful rhetoric and division" and policies that demonstrate "cruelty and exclusion" rather than hope. "This agenda is designed to do one thing only: divide our communities with cheap, xenophobic rhetoric, and demonize those seeking to make legitimate asylum claims in the United States to find a life of safety for themselves and their children," Biden said.
NBC News national political reporter Sahil Kapur shared on Twitter an unsolicited comment from Miller, reacting to the Biden campaign's comments: (See Tweet). His initial phone call with Miller—in which the Trump adviser said a broad goal of the administration is "raising and enhancing the standard for entry" to the United States—elicited concern from far more than just the Biden campaign, which has been challenged to reckon with the Obama administration's track record on immigration policy, particularly deportations.
As of Saturday afternoon, an estimated 90 million Americans, including more than nine million voters in the key battleground and border state of Texas, had already cast ballots in the November 3 election.
Kapur's interview with Miller was among multiple recent reports in the lead-up to Election Day that have reflected on Trump's immigration policies and detailed what could come if he wins another term...
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/31/so-so-cruel-rights-advocates-biden-campaign-sound-alarm-about-immigration-agenda
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- 'Trump aide Stephen Miller preparing second-term immigration blitz,' The Guardian, Oct. 28, 2020
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/28/stephen-miller-trump-second-term-immigration-blitz