Top Trump advisor Stephen Miller unveils tough anti-migrant tactics of a second administration: From land and sea military deployments to building more border walls and buoys along the Rio Grande - and even denying entry to Marxists
By James Reinl
Daily Mail
Aug 21, 2023
One of Donald Trump's top advisors has unveiled the tough anti-migrant crackdown the former president will launch if voters award him another stint in the White House in next year's vote.
Stephen Miller, a senior Trump advisor, says a second Trump administration would construct more wall on the US-Mexico border, extend the floating barrier on the Rio Grande, and deploy a naval blockade against drug traffickers.
Speaking with Axios, Miller unveiled other measures, including an expansion of the so-called 'Muslim ban' on arrivals from mostly Middle Eastern and African countries, and screening to prevent Marxists from entering the US.
The rollout comes after US Customs and Border Protection revealed on Friday that agents processed 183,000 migrants in July, a 33 percent increase on June, as illegal people flows alarm millions of voters.
'For those passionate about securing our immigration system... the first 100 days of the Trump administration will be pure bliss,' Miller told the online news outlet.
A second Trump administration would build more wall than has been erected
Trump plans to deploy the US military against Mexico's heavily-armed drug cartels
That period would be 'followed by another four years of the most hard-hitting action conceivable,' he added.
Though popular among many voters, tough immigration policies are alarming for some human rights groups and progressives, leaving Republicans and Democrats at odds for years over how to fix what many call a 'broken' system.
According to Miller, the second Trump administration's policies would include:
- Ramping up ideological screening for legal migrants and nix applications from anyone deemed 'Marxists' — likely determined by probing social media accounts
- Deploy a Coast Guard and Navy blockade to stop drug smuggling boats from Latin America
- Revive and expand the 'Muslim Ban' from the first administration to block more people from mostly Middle Eastern and African countries
- Designate Mexico's drug cartels as 'unlawful enemy combatants' and deploy the US military against them
- Move to end birthright citizenship for children of migrants without papers — possibly setting the stage for a battle in the conservative-loaded Supreme Court
- Extend the floating barrier of buoys along the Rio Grande.
- Speed up deportations of migrants with criminal records
- Complete the border wall that Trump started, but current President Joe Biden halted
- Make undocumented migrants 'remain in Mexico' while they await a court date.
- Make it harder for legal immigrants to enter the US — with stricter financial requirements and hefty bonds to deter visitors from overstaying
- Revive the Title 42 public health order to expel illegal migrants for non-COVID illnesses
- Expel child migrants in a bid to deter the trafficking of minors
Americans have warmed up to tough anti-migrant measures after years of record-breaking flows of undocumented migrants into the US, straining services at the border and such cities as New York and Chicago.
Many of the policies floated by Miller are popular among US voters, DailyMail.com/TIPP polling shows.
Trump's advisors like the buoys deployed by Texas and would extend the floating barrier
Our surveys of nearly 1,400 voters this month found that 52 percent support completing the barrier along the nearly 2,000-mile US-Mexico border.
Another 51 percent of voters said they support the 1,000-foot floating buoy barrier that Texas Gov Gregg Abbot deployed along the Rio Grande to deter migrants.
Meanwhile, fully 58 percent of US adults said smugglers of drugs and people should face the death penalty — in another ringing endorsement of a hard-line Trump immigration policy.
Still, some of Trump's 2024 policies are less popular.
Only 39 percent of voters support ending birthright citizenship, and 46 percent are opposed to ending the American tradition.
A second Trump administration would also have plenty of opponents fighting any immigration crackdown.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a policy chief for the American Immigration Council, which defends US immigration, said the policies were severe.
A Coast Guard and Navy blockade would stop drug smuggling boats from Latin America
US Customs and Border Protection processed 183,000 migrants in July, a 33 percent increase on June
Trump would rush 'people through the system, stripping due process protections from them, eliminating any access to legal services, and really transforming this into an assembly line deportation machine,' he told Axios.
The Biden administration has already sued Texas over the use of buoys and barbed wire to deter migrants along the Rio Grande.
Some of Trump's policies involve using the Alien Enemies Act and other dated, often-overlooked laws, which could open his crackdown to legal challenges.
More buoys and military deployments would doubtless aggravate relations with Mexico.
Despite the criminal indictments against him, Trump is the front-runner to win the Republican Party's nomination for the 2024 election, and polls show he's evenly matched against Biden, his expected Democratic opponent.
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