Stephen Miller’s influence is ‘on the wane’
The White House deputy chief of staff and homeland security adviser designed President Tump’s second-term immigration agenda, but "Trump recognized immediately after the second killing in Minneapolis, of the protester Alex Pretti, that the policy needed to shift,” says The Atlantic.
Trump, who has joked that Miller’s “truest feelings” are so extreme that they shouldn't be aired publicly, has told others in recent weeks that he understands Miller sometimes goes too far, The Atlantic says.
When Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was replaced by Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., his mandate was to “get back to basics,” The Atlantic says.
Leaders of the agency who’d been sidelined by Noem, such as Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott, suddenly found themselves empowered. Employees Noem had pushed out, such as former Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar and CBP official Matt Eagan, were welcomed back. Andrew Block, a close ally of Miller who served as CBP’s chief counsel, was "shown the door.”
Underlying all the changes is a return to conventional ICE “targeted enforcement” tactics that prioritize immigrants with criminal records or pending deportation orders, and that seek to make arrests with less drama, says The Atlantic.
"The strategy, blessed by Trump, is a relief for Republican campaign strategists who watched with trepidation as the street battles in Minneapolis turned immigration, an issue that Trump had dominated in 2024, into a liability,” The Atlantic says.
The power center has shifted. “The new secretary is listening to Tom Homan and Rodney Scott before he is ever listening to Stephen Miller,” a senior administration official told The Atlantic. “We just have law enforcement in charge.”
Miller has shifted his focus to a new task force to uncover “fraud” among immigrant communities. But he continues to post regularly on social media about violent crime by undocumented migrants. He's stopped publicly railing against the domestic-terrorism threat of liberal activists, although a new counterterrorism strategy released this week still lists “Violent Left-Wing Extremists” (but not violent right-wing extremists) as a threat on par with narco- and Islamic terrorists.
Miller has begun to push for more radical congressional redistricting, saying Republicans can pick up 40 seats or more if they take advantage of the recent Supreme Court Voting Rights Act ruling, overhaul the Census, and persuade courts to exclude undocumented immigrants from population counts that determine how many seats are given to each state.
Several people told The Atlantic it's just a matter of time before Miller is able to reassert himself with new initiatives.
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