Key Points – Stephen Miller, President Trump’s deputy White House chief of staff, is reportedly demanding that ICE triple its daily arrests to 3,000, signaling a more aggressive interior immigration enforcement push despite plummeting border crossings.
-This directive, delivered at a May 21st meeting with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, comes as Trump’s heavy-handed tactics may be negatively impacting his immigration poll numbers.
-Separately, Miller publicly defended Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” against claims it increases the deficit—a criticism notably voiced by Elon Musk, for whom Miller’s wife, Katie, is now working full-time after leaving her White House role advising Musk’s DOGE initiative.
Stephen Miller Is Not Happy
Stephen Miller has been an adviser to Donald Trump ever since he first began running for president, and has always been associated not only with a hardline stance on immigration, but a public posture of being uncommonly cruel about the issue.
It says a lot about Miller and the types of things people say about him.
“What’s going to happen when this guy gets the power?” one anonymous Republican staffer said of Miller during an early profile in 2016. “Oh my God… He’s going to find out that I spoke with you, and I’m going to end up in a camp somewhere.”
During Trump’s first presidency, around the time of the child-separation scandal, another anonymous quote hit the news, this time in Vanity Fair.
“Stephen actually enjoys seeing those pictures at the border,” an anonymous “outside White House adviser” told Vanity Fair. “He’s a twisted guy, the way he was raised and picked on. There’s always been a way he’s gone about this. He’s Waffen-SS.”
In Trump’s second presidency, Miller, now serving as deputy White House chief of staff, has done a lot to live up to the reputation of those quotes.
“Supercharge”
Per Axios, Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have demanded that ICE up their count of arrests, to bring it up to 3,000 arrests a day.
That number is three times what the agency has been hitting so far.
“The increased pressure on agents comes as border-crossing numbers have plummeted in Trump’s first four months. It signals an increasingly aggressive approach to making arrests in non-border communities nationwide,” Axios reported of the request. “ It also comes as the Trump administration’s heavy-handed tactics in rounding up unauthorized immigrants — and in some cases, legal residents and even U.S. citizens — appear to have contributed to President Trump’s slipping poll numbers on immigration.”
The report added that Miller’s “directive and tone had people leaving the meeting feeling their jobs could be in jeopardy if the new targets aren’t reached.”
The meeting, per Axios, was held at ICE headquarters on May 21, while Noem spoke as well, along with “special government employee” and on-and-off Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski.
Mrs. Miller Leaves the White House
Stephen Miller was in the news for another reason this week.
Katie Miller, Stephen’s wife, who worked in the Trump White House in both administrations, had been advising Elon Musk’s DOGE effort. And with the news that Musk is departing his role as a “special government employee,” Katie Miller is leaving the White House to work with Musk full time, CNN reported. One source said that Mrs. Miller will be working on “helping arrange Musk’s interviews that are unrelated to his time in government.”
Somewhat intriguingly, Musk this week has been critical of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” saying in a CBS interview that it “increases the budget deficit, not just decrease it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.” Musk has also stated recently that he plans to have less involvement in politics going forward, including donating less in the future.
Miller, while not addressing Musk directly, pushed back in a long X post this week, claiming, somewhat questionably, that the package does not actually increase the deficit.
“I’ve also seen claims the bill increases the deficit. This lie is based on a CBO accounting gimmick,” Miller wrote. “Income tax rates from the 2017 tax cut are set to expire in September. They were always planned to be permanent. CBO says maintaining *current* rates adds to the deficit, but by definition leaving these income tax rates unchanged cannot add one penny to the deficit.”
In addition to Musk, the Congressional Budget Office and most major economists believe that the bill does, in fact, increase the deficit.
About the Author:
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter
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