By Sahil Kapur - NBC News
WASHINGTON - Stephen Miller, one of the White House's top aides, has developed plans to accelerate President Donald Trump's restrictive immigration agenda if he wins re-election, in stark contrast to the proposals of Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
In a 30-minute phone interview with NBC News, Telemundo's sister network, Miller outlined four main priorities: limiting asylum grants, punishing and banning so-called sanctuary cities, expanding the so-called travel ban with stricter screening for applicants. visa, and put new limits on work visas.
Its objective is to
"raise and improve the standard of entry" to the country
Some of his plans would require new legislation, that is, the support of the House of Representatives and the Senate, whose control is also at stake in these elections.
Others could move them forward through executive orders, which Trump has already used numerous times in the absence of an immigration bill.
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"In many cases, solving these problems and restoring a semblance of sanity in our immigration programs involves regulatory reform," Miller explained, "Congress has delegated a lot of authority ... and that underscores the depth of the choice you face. the American people. "
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Miller, who plays a dual role as an adviser in the White House and in Trump's re-election campaign, emphasized that he was speaking about second-term priorities only as an electoral adviser.
Immigration has been overshadowed by rising coronavirus infections and an economy shattered by the pandemic, but it was central to Trump's rise to power in the Republican Party.
And Miller has been the muscle and brains of the Administration's controversial policies to crack down on illegal immigration and for immigrants who aspire to legalize their status.
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Miller has spearheaded an immigration policy that critics describe as
cruel, racist and antithetical to American values
as a nation of immigrants.
But he scoffs at those claims, insisting his only priority is protecting the safety and wages of Americans.
And he said he intends to stay to watch the agenda unfold in a second term if Trump is re-elected.
Immigration
freeze In the short term, Miller would not commit to lifting the freeze on new permanent residence
cards
(
green cards)
and visas that expire at the end of the year, claiming that it would be "totally contingent" on the government analysis that takes into account the state of the labor market.
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When asked if he would support reinstating the controversial zero tolerance policy that led to the separation of families, Miller said the Trump Administration is "100% committed to a family unity policy" but advocated ending the agreement. court that prevents immigrant minors from being kept in prison for a long time
Over the past year, the Administration has sought to amend the Flores agreement, which says children cannot be held in detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for more than 20 days or more than 72 hours by the Border Patrol.
If successful,
immigrant families could be detained indefinitely
while waiting for their immigration court appointment.
Limit the right to asylum
Under Trump's watch, asylum grants have plummeted.
Miller wants it to stay that way.
He claimed that a second Trump term would seek to expand "burden-sharing" agreements with Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador that cut off roads to the United States for asylum seekers.
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"The president would like to expand that to include the rest of the world," Miller said, "and if you create safe third-party partners on other continents and other countries and regions, then you have the ability to share the burden of asylum seekers globally. ".
Opening new fights with sanctuary cities "Another major priority in stark contrast will be really cracking down on sanctuary cities," Miller said.
He noted that the administration has withheld some grants to sanctuary cities.
In a second term, he said, he would continue the battle with two new initiatives.
Thus, Trump would push for legislation introduced by Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, that would punish jurisdictions that refuse to hand over arrested people who are in the United States illegally to ICE for deportation.
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And it would go a step further with a law to "prohibit the practice", which would force the authorities to hand over these migrants to the federals.
Expanding the travel ban
Miller said another priority would be "to build and expand the framework that we have created with the travel ban, in terms of raising the bar for screening and background checks for admission to the United States."
That includes improved screening methods and more information sharing between agencies to screen applicants seeking admission to the country.
The United States is already seeking links to terrorism and extremist groups.
Miller wants to go further by examining the "sympathies or ideological leanings" of visa applicants to assess their potential for recruitment by radicals.
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That may include adding or changing the interview process or talking to people close to the applicants about their beliefs.
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"That will be one of the main priorities," he
said.
"It is going to require an entire effort from the government. It is going to need the construction of a very elaborate and very complex selection mechanism," he added.
Reduction of work visas
Miller noted that a second Trump term would end efforts to reduce the use of skilled worker programs such as H-1B visas, including eliminating the lottery system used in the process when applications exceed the annual quota and prioritizing those that they are offered the highest salaries.
The politician assured that Trump would seek a "point-based entry system" for US visa concessions designed to admit
only those who "can contribute the most to job creation and economic opportunities"
while preventing "displacement of workers. Americans ".
