https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/04/stephen-miller-power-over-trump-is-about-to-be-tested-jared-kushner-immigration?utm_medium=social&utm_brand=vf&mbid=social_twitter&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=twitter
Stephen Miller’s Power Over Trump Is About to Be Tested
Jared Kushner is taking over efforts to increase legal immigration, putting him on a collision course with the West Wing’s most hardline anti-immigration extremist.
by
Eric Lutz
April 3, 2019 1:23 pm
ared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, appears to be on a collision course with Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s favorite anti-immigration ghoul. According to Politico, Kushner has been working behind the scenes on a plan to expand some forms of legal immigration in an effort to “increase the number of low- and high-skilled workers” in the country. Even Trump, who delights in spewing anti-immigrant rhetoric and stoking xenophobic fears, seems to be on board, calling this week for more legal immigrants to “run the factories and plants and companies that are moving back in.”
One person who may be less enthused? Miller, who has reportedly been only peripherally involved in the effort, and whose restrictionist views likely put him at odds with Kushner. “The different factions in the White House represent different factions among Republicans,” an immigration activist involved in Kushner’s efforts told Politico. “It sure looks like the folks who want an expansion are winning.”
Ironically enough, the schism comes as the president ramps up his draconian efforts to halt illegal immigration, including a threat to shut down the United States’ southern border and a seemingly counterproductive call to cut aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—a plan experts say could actually increase the number of migrants seeking entry into the U.S. Those efforts, harebrained though they may be, are in keeping with Trump’s rhetoric on the campaign trail and in office. But in recent months, the president has also made calls to increase legal immigration, including an ad-libbed line in February’s State of the Union address in which he said he “want[s] people to come into our country in the largest numbers ever.”
According to Politico, Kushner has been put in charge of those efforts, potentially teeing up an inter-administration showdown between his views and Miller’s. Kushner has long been viewed as a more moderate member of the Trump administration, in part on the basis of the bipartisan criminal-justice reform package that he helped ferry through Congress. Miller, on the other hand, is among the last remaining members of a cadre of fringe figures like Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka that initially populated the Trump administration. Miller has survived in the administration as one of Trump’s closest advisers in large part because, as Politico noted, his anti-immigrant views appear to align with those of the president. Indeed, Miller has been one of the primary architects of Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda, and the wordsmith behind much of the president’s fear-mongering rhetoric.
If Kushner gets his way, that could change. But it’s unclear how the First Son-in-Law’s plans will play out. Despite telling reporters Wednesday that we “need people coming in,” Trump has shown no sign of letting up on his efforts to target undocumented immigrants. Even if Kushner can sway the president, Miller would need to sign off on the final plan, meaning he could bury this effort the way he has other potential immigration compromises. And, of course, there’s the matter of Kushner himself who, despite seeing a criminal-justice reform bill to the finish line, has been largely feckless in his supposed attempts to draw the president to the center. “Everyone continues to look at Jared as the great deal-maker,” a former Trump adviser told Politico. “I think people give him too much credit.”