There’s a news story out today about a letter which 27 senate Democrats signed and sent to Donald Trump telling him to fire Stephen Miller.
The senators who did that deserve our thanks for taking this action. But in the rush to give credit to them, let’s not forget the history of opposition to Stephen Miller and the ones who led the way on this.
This is not the first letter Democrats have sent to Trump calling on him to fire Miller, it’s the second such letter. And both letters are the result of vigorous efforts by several people — one in particular, whom I’ll identify in a moment for anyone who has forgotten or wasn’t aware of her courageous actions in bringing Miller’s vile racism to the nation’s attention and helping mobilize Democrats to work on getting Miller removed from his position of authority.
The story starts quite a ways back, but for the sake of brevity let’s just start back 8 months ago, to April, when Donald Trump decided to make Stephen Miller the head of ICE. Ilhan Omar responded by calling attention to Stephen Miller’s extreme racism and white nationalism — and was vilified for it by conservatives, who said it proved she was an anti-semite. From CNN:
"It is the most bizarre thing," Omar told CNN on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, when asked about the condemnation she's faced since she tweeted that "Stephen Miller is a white nationalist" on Monday. In her tweet, Omar pointed to reporting that Miller has been behind President Donald Trump's hardline immigration policies and convinced the President to drop his nominee to lead US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and go in a "tougher direction."
"You know we are talking about someone who truly believes not a single refugee, not a single immigrant, should set foot on American soil," Omar told CNN Tuesday, referencing Miller. "I am appalled by that..."
...
Republican critics of Omar, including the President's son Donald Trump Jr., viewed the congresswoman's attack against Miller, who is Jewish, as anti-Semitic.
And Republicans weren’t the only ones criticizing Omar at the time. Fortunately some Democrats had her back:
Another House Democrat, Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, defended Omar, saying he was never accused of anti-Semitism when he also called Miller a white nationalist last year.
"Rather than attacking (Omar), why won't they stand up to white nationalism & President Trump's support for 'very fine people'?" Pocan wrote on Twitter Tuesday, referring to the President's remarks about the 2017 Unite the Right march in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Fast forward to November, when SPLC obtained and published e-mails of Stephen Miller which showed that Omar had been correct. From Vox:
Democrats, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, are calling on White House senior adviser and immigration policy architect Stephen Miller to resign after the release of hundreds of emails promoting white nationalist content and extremely restrictive immigration policies.
“Trump’s architect of mass human rights abuses at the border ... has been exposed as a bonafide white nationalist,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter. “He’s still at the White House shaping US immigration policy. Miller must resign. Now.”
Ocasio-Cortez followed this tweet with a petition demanding Miller’s resignation that reads in part, “A white nationalist is currently serving as a top advisor to the President of the United States. In 2019. ... This man cannot serve in the White House.”
Omar, who some critics accused of anti-Semitism for her rebuke of Miller (who is Jewish) earlier this year, also called for the official’s resignation. On Tuesday, she wrote, “As I said earlier this year: Stephen Miller is a white nationalist. ... Miller needs to step down. Now.”
Other Democratic leaders, including presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro have censured Miller, with Castro calling him a “Neo-Nazi” who is “a shame to our nation.” And some, like Rep. Earl Blumenauer, argue Miller shouldn’t just resign, but that he should be “fired immediately.”
The Vox article also contains a reminder of the vilification Omar had been subjected to earlier when she brought serious attention to Miller’s racism:
In April, Omar’s accusation — which is now supported by these emails — was responded to by anger among conservatives; responses were largely variations of this Donald Trump Jr. tweet: “I see that the head of the Farrakhan Fan Club, [Ilhan Omar], took a short break from spewing her usual anti-semitic bigotry today to accuse a Jewish man of being a ‘white nationalist’ because she apparently has no shame.”
But this time, backed up by the SPLC evidence, Democrats were united in their support of Omar…
Which led more than 100 prominent Democrats on November 21 to sign onto a letter (organized by representatives Ilhan Omar, Barbara Lee, Don Beyer, Bill Pascrell, Bonnie Coleman, Norma Torres, Bill Foster and Chellie Pingree) calling on Donald Trump to fire Stephen Miller. From The Hill, here’s a story about that letter:
"Given Mr. Miller’s role in shaping immigration policy for your administration, his documented dedication to extremist, anti-immigrant ideology and conspiracy-mongering is disqualifying," the lawmakers wrote.
The Democrats wrote that Miller's ideology manifested itself in the form of several policy decisions, including a travel ban on citizens of several Muslim-majority countries, a decrease in refugee admissions and the decision to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
"These are just a few obvious examples of Mr. Miller’s white supremacist influence on your immigration policy, and it seems likely that his perfidious adherence to extremist ideology has shaped your administration in ways that are not yet public," the lawmakers wrote. "Miller’s emails and the sentiments expressed in them are incompatible with public service and render him unfit to shape any policy – immigration or otherwise."
By all means, let’s give credit and thanks to those who signed the letter sent today by Democratic senators calling for Miller to be fired. But let’s also remember to give credit and thanks to those who went before — especially to Ilhan Omar, one of the members of congress I admire the most for her willingness to stand up and speak out about important issues even when it’s not popular and brings her criticism and death threats. In my eyes she’s a true heroine of our times, and I look forward to seeing her continue doing what she’s been doing in the days, months, and years ahead.
Tuesday, Dec 10, 2019 · 3:51:45 PM +00:00 · Nova Land
From Chellie Pingree’s website, here is the complete text of the November 21 letter:
Dear President Trump:
We formally request that you immediately remove White House Senior Advisor Stephen Miller from your administration. A documented white nationalist has no place in any presidential administration, and especially not in such an influential position.
Last week, numerous emails sent by Mr. Miller were made public that clearly establish that he is an avid white nationalist and conspiracy theorist. These emails included material exposing Miller’s support of white supremacist ideology and literature, xenophobic conspiracy theories, as well as his promotion of white supremacist websites. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch blog, which obtained the emails, 80 percent of the more than 900 emails directly referenced race or immigration, and none contained “examples of Miller writing sympathetically or even in neutral tones about any person who is non-white or foreign-born.” Given Mr. Miller’s role in shaping immigration policy for your administration, his documented dedication to extremist, anti-immigrant ideology and conspiracy-mongering is disqualifying.
Beyond the disturbing emails that Mr. Miller wrote, is the clear conclusion that he brought his dedication to white nationalism with him into your administration and translated this hateful ideology directly into your administration’s discriminatory immigration policies. Mr. Miller’s documented hatred of Muslim immigrants shaped your Muslim ban, and sheds new light on your administration’s intent in writing that ban. Mr. Miller’s clear support for halting all immigration is evident in many forms, including your continued support for ending DACA as well as the increasing difficulty of obtaining asylum and visas across all categories. There is a clear line between Miller’s advocacy for books like “Camp of the Saints,”—a novel celebrated by neo-Nazis for promoting the view of non-white immigrants as “monsters”— and the Administration’s inhumane family separation policy, of which Miller was the primary architect.
Stephen Miller’s nativism was cited as a major impetus behind your decision to reject a bipartisan compromise immigration bill that would have protected Dreamers due to his belief that the compromise would not reduce enough documented immigration. Appallingly, Mr. Miller referred to refugees as “foreign-born terrorists” in his emails, a belief which clearly translated to the unprecedented low ceiling on refugee admissions and even lower actual entrants at a time of the worst international refugee crisis in history. These are just a few obvious examples of Mr. Miller’s white supremacist influence on your immigration policy, and it seems likely that his perfidious adherence to extremist ideology has shaped your administration in ways that are not yet public. Miller’s emails and the sentiments expressed in them are incompatible with public service and render him unfit to shape any policy – immigration or otherwise
We refuse to tolerate white nationalism and xenophobia in the White House or elsewhere in the United States. Mr. Miller must be fired immediately.
And here is a complete list of the 107 members of congress who signed the letter:
- Donald S. Beyer Jr.
- Barbara Lee
- Bonnie Watson Coleman
- Ilhan Omar
- Bill Pascrell Jr.
- Norma J. Torres
- Bill Foster
- Chellie Pingree
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
- Rashida Tlaib
- Ben Ray Luján
- David N. Cicilline
- Jerrold Nadler
- Joaquin Castro
- Ted W. Lieu
- Joseph P. Kennedy III
- Jamie Raskin
- Henry C. "Hank" Johnson Jr.
- Peter A. DeFazio
- Karen Bass
- Ruben Gallego
- Nydia Velazquez
- Eleanor Holmes Norton
- Mike Doyle
- Gerald E. Connolly
- Bobby L. Rush
- Tony Cárdenas
- Steve Cohen
- Alan Lowenthal
- Adriano Espaillat
- Susan Wild
- Andre' Carson
- Dwight Evans
- Albio Sires
- Jan Schakowsky
- G. K. Butterfield
- Frank Pallone Jr.
- Tom Malinowski
- Eliot L. Engel
- Grace F. Napolitano
- William R. Keating
- Jared Huffman
- Nanette Diaz Barragán
- David E. Price
- Mark Pocan
- Juan Vargas
- Earl Blumenauer
- Veronica Escobar
- Mike Quigley
- Jimmy Gomez
- Sylvia R. Garcia
- Joyce Beatty
- uzanne Bonamici
- Jesús G. “Chuy” García
- Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
- Sharice L. Davids
- Julia Brownley
- Gregory W. Meeks
- Brenda L. Lawrence
- Seth Moulton
- Adam Smith
- Nita M. Lowey
- Zoe Lofgren
- Andy Levin
- Pramila Jayapal
- Bradley S. Schneider
- Judy Chu
- Darren Soto
- Brendan F. Boyle
- Mark Takano
- Rick Larsen
- John Yarmuth
- Yvette D. Clarke
- Jahana Hayes
- Pete Aguilar
- Raúl M. Grijalva
- Tim Ryan
- Peter Welch
- Lucille Roybal-Allard
- José E. Serrano
- Marc Veasey
- Lloyd Doggett
- Frederica Wilson
- Jimmy Panetta
- Sheila Jackson Lee
- Val Butler Demings
- Anna G. Eshoo
- Betty McCollum
- Debbie Wasserman Schultz
- Paul Tonko
- Ed Perlmutter
- Terri Sewell
- Raja Krishnamoorthi
- Gwen Moore
- Grace Meng
- Jackie Speier
- James P. McGovern
- Deb Haaland
- Al Green
- Daniel T. Kildee
- Mark DeSaulnier
- Danny K. Davis
- Gilbert R. Cisneros Jr.
- Brian Higgins
- Rosa DeLauro
- Diana DeGette
- Alma Adams