FIRST STEP

Stephen Miller Says Trump’s Temporary Immigration Ban for Coronavirus Is Part of Long-Term Plan

Miller told supporters on a private call that the “first and most important thing is to turn off the faucet of new immigrant labor.”

White House adviser Stephen Miller says President Donald Trump’s temporary ban on some categories of immigration into the United States, ostensibly meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus, is part of a larger more permanent plan, The Washington Post reports. Miller said on a Thursday conference call with Trump surrogates that “the first and most important thing is to turn off the faucet of new immigrant labor—mission accomplished—with signing that executive order.” He said further restrictions would be coming, but that even what Trump described as a “pause” would have long-term implications. “As a numerical proposition, when you suspend the entry of a new immigrant from abroad, you’re also reducing immigration further because the chains of follow-on migration that are disrupted,” he said. “So the benefit to American workers compounds with time.”