Muslim ban author Stephen Miller now wants to ban all refugees

More than anyone else, Stephen Miller has worked tirelessly to make Trump’s vicious anti-immigrant fantasies a reality. Now, he’s about to put in place his cruelest policy yet: a near-total ban on refugees entering the United States.

Miller wants to slash the number of refugees admitted next year to zero, according to Politico. The Department of Homeland Security reportedly wants to set the quota somewhere between 3,000 and 10,000 people.

Trump’s administration had already slashed the ceiling for refugee admissions in 2019, dropping it to 30,000 people. Until the Trump era, the United States admitted more refugees each year than all other countries combined. Under the Obama administration, the ceiling varied from around 70,000 to 85,000 per year.

Refugees are people fleeing violence and displacement in locations such as Syria, Iraq and South Sudan. They’re similar to individuals seeking asylum, however they apply from their home country, rather than by arriving at a port of entry in the United States.

The drastic decrease in refugee admissions is also a problem for Iraqi citizens who have worked for the United States as translators and interpreters.

Former defense secretary Jim Mattis expressed this concern in a letter sent last September to national security adviser John Bolton, according to Politico.

“Numerous Iraqi nationals have risked their own lives and their families’ lives by aligning with” the United States. Now, those Iraqis may be forced to remain in Iraq, even though they may be targets because of their past work as translators and interpreters for the U.S. military,” he said.

Over 100,000 Iraqis remain in the queue for admission to the United States. At least 9,000 people are already approved to travel here. Another 29,000 have completed an interview with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). No one knows what will happen to those refugees.

Getting refugee admissions down to zero would be the ultimate victory for Miller. In 2017, as a White House senior adviser, he authored Trump’s racist Muslim ban. He was also behind the family separation policy.

In April 2019, he was placed in charge of immigration policy, giving him free rein to impose his xenophobic worldview. After all, this is a man so unhinged that he once attacked the Statue of Liberty, sneering at the notion that it represents a welcome to the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Miller is racist and xenophobic to his very core. His ruthlessness is going to leave tens of thousands of displaced from their homes.

Those aren’t side effects of his proposed policies — they’re exactly what he wants.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.