Former Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller is expected to discuss immigration policy with conservative lawmakers, Politico reported late Tuesday, a sign that the Republican Party will continue to embrace the former administration’s hardline immigration policies.
Miller, whose is known for his aggressive opposition to most forms of immigration, will be joined at the Wednesday meeting by Tom Homan and Mark Morgan, two former top immigration officials who took part in crafting some of Trump’s most inhumane immigration policies, including family separation, according to a report from The Hill.
The gathering was organized by the Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative lawmakers chaired by Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), who met with former Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday.
The GOP’s continued embrace of Miller demonstrates the party’s unwillingness to back away from the Trump administration’s harsh immigration policies. Before the November election, Miller said that Biden would be “the best friend that child smugglers and child traffickers have ever had in the White House,” a winking nod to the QAnon conspiracy that claims Democrats are a bunch of satanic pedophiles.
The meeting comes as former President Trump is expected to address the Conservative Political Action Conference with remarks later this week that bash his successor’s approach to immigration as Republicans scramble to unify against Biden’s plan, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants.
The Biden administration came under fire earlier this week for reopening a Trump-era facility for migrant children even as he pushes to undo many of the xenophobic immigration policies that built support in former President Donald Trump’s base.
Miller has attacked the hefty immigration plan introduced last Thursday by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA), calling it in a Fox News interview “the most radical immigration bill ever written, drafted, or submitted in the history of this country.”
Menendez said at a news conference last week that past efforts at immigration reform had failed due to a tendency to compromise too much.
“Time and time again, we have compromised too much and capitulated too quickly to fringe voices who have refused to accept the humanity and contributions of immigrants to our country,” Menendez said, as Republicans call for Democrats to back down from bold legislation.
The proposed reforms includes policy that has won the support of Republicans in the past as well an array of business groups.
