Some Democrats are looking to an unlikely role model for tackling immigration if the White House turns blue in 2028: Stephen Miller.
Former Obama Cabinet secretary Ken Salazar told Politico that the Democratic Party needs its own Miller to spearhead immigration policy should a Democratic president be elected after Donald Trump.
“At least on how they are conducting the choir, they’re conducting in a very effective way,” Salazar, who served as Secretary of the Interior during the Obama administration, said. “Even though we can disagree with them, at least they’re conducting the choir. It didn’t happen with the past administration.”
Miller, widely seen as the architect of Trump’s hardline immigration policy, has taken a commanding role on the issue as the president’s homeland security adviser and deputy chief of staff for policy.
The top White House aide helped orchestrate the disastrous immigration enforcement crackdown in Minneapolis, dubbed Operation Metro Surge, that began in December.
After the action led to the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens, 37-year-olds Renee Good and Alex Pretti, in January and prompted widespread backlash, Miller retreated from the limelight, but remained a prominent voice behind the scenes.
However, Democrats have not overlooked his effectiveness as a central voice overseeing the issue, despite his extreme rhetoric.
“In the next Democratic administration, it’s not going to be as informal as it is now,” Alex Brockwehl, who served as the director for migration cooperation in Biden’s National Security Council, told the outlet. “But we could have something leaner. It’s a spectrum, and what we had before was a ton of cooks. Now, there’s just one cook. And probably we can land somewhere in between.”
Homeland security has proven to be a contentious issue in contemporary American politics, as both Republican and Democratic presidents have had difficulty striking the right balance between more progressive and conservative policies when it comes to immigration.
Joe Biden’s DHS secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, was the first Cabinet member to be impeached in nearly 150 years after his handling of the southern border faced backlash from both sides of the political spectrum.
Trump himself axed his first DHS secretary, Kristi Noem, earlier this year as her department’s aggressive enforcement incited nationwide protests. Though she was replaced by former Oklahoma senator Markwayne Mullin, the department’s ICE operations have largely continued the same.
