"There Won't Even Be a Paper Trail": Has Stephen Miller Become a Shadow
Master at the State Department?
By Abigail Tracy, Vanity Fair
12 August 18
For the past year, Miller has been quietly gutting the U.S. refugee program,
slashing the number of people allowed into the country to the lowest level
in decades. His name hasnt been on anything, says a former U.S. official
who worked on refugee issues. He is working behind the scenes, he has
planted all of his people in all of these positions, he is on the phone with
them all of the time, and he is creating a side operation that will
circumvent the normal, transparent policy process. And he is succeeding.
In his first month in the White House, Stephen Miller learned a valuable
lesson from a mentor. As one of his first acts as president, Donald Trump
had signed an executive order banning travel to the United States from
several majority-Muslim countries, and mass protests were breaking out
across the country. Law-enforcement officials, who had received little
guidance on how to carry out the order, were flummoxed, and the
administration was swiftly taken to court. Chief strategist Steve Bannon,
who helped craft the order alongside Miller, was nevertheless delighted by
the self-created maelstrom. When journalist Michael Wolff later asked Bannon
why the ban had been implemented so recklessly, Bannon suggested the chaos
was part of the fun. So the snowflakes would show up at the airports and
riot, he replied.
Whereas Bannon made controversy his calling card, Miller has operated in a
more shadowyand effectivemanner, gradually applying leverage and using
shrewd personnel decisions to implement his draconian vision on immigration
policy throughout the West Wing and government agencies. Some measures, like
his role in the travel ban or the Trump administrations callous
family-separation policy, have been obvious. It was really a shock to a
bureau whose mission is to help refugees, Anne Richard, a former assistant
secretary of state for Population, Refugees and Migration, said of the
travel ban. I knew the Trump administration from the campaign was hostile
to refugees. I did not anticipate that they would move so quickly, even
before there was a Secretary of State. As one senior Senate staffer
explained, in the early months of the Trump administration it was very
dramatic and people knew what was happening and you could just see it
visibly.
Other maneuvers to restrict legal immigration have been slightly more
subtle. Last September, Miller played a leading role in slashing the refugee
admissions cap to 45,000less than one-half the 110,000 ceiling set under
President Barack Obama, and the lowest level since 1980. Now, he has
reportedly revived his push for another cut, to a cap as low as 15,000
refugees. Earlier this week, the 32-year-old senior adviser was reported to
be focused on an even more ambitious project: imposing strict limits on
legal immigration, as well as on individuals seeking asylum from war,
famine, and prosecution. The administration seems to delight in picking on
the most vulnerable people, David Robinson, the former assistant secretary
for the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations at the State
Department, told me, enumerating the ways in which the resettlement process
had been logjammed. Pretty soon you are going to have a trickle and not a
stream. Currently, the U.S. is on pace to admit around 22,000 refugees this
fiscal year. Defenders of the policies argue that the cuts offset a surge in
asylum seekers, while critics dismiss the notion as a manufactured crisis.
By 2020, I would not be surprised if we just don't have this program
anymore, said Jennifer Quigley, an advocacy strategist for refugee
protection at Human Rights First. I wouldnt be surprised if its 5,000
next year and then zero. (When asked about the negotiations for next years
refugee cap, an administration official said in a statement, We are not
going to get ahead of the presidents policy.)
Nearly a dozen current and former administration officials I have spoken
with in recent weeks describe the latest negotiations over the
refugee-admissions cap as one of the more insidious examples of Millers
efforts to curtail immigration to the United States. (Miller, a lifelong
culture warrior, first made his name in conservative circles with an
impassioned op-ed raging against the preponderance of Latino students who
lacked basic English skills in his high school.) Its part of a very
coherent, effective, and successful plan. Its not easy to do hard things in
our government, a former official at the Department of Homeland Security
explained. Our government is huge . . . its kind of constructed to slow
things down and to make sure that individuals dont wield excessive power.
Its got lots and lots of checks and balances, so its really difficult to
pull off something like what theyve pulled off, and theyve done it. There
are, after all, hundreds of career civil servants who have dedicated their
lives to helping the estimated 69 million refugees in the world, only a
minuscule portion of whom ever gain sanctuary in the United States. But
Miller has found ways to hijack the machinery of the government to undermine
these agencies core mission. Now, its sort of like the termite approach,
which is you place people inside and you have them basically eat away in a
more quiet way, subtly inside, the senior Senate staffer continued. Its
not as transparent to the outside world, and they just sort of destroy
programs they dont care about. (The White House declined multiple requests
for comment.)
Miller, perhaps in the wake of Fire and Fury flameout, has also satisfied
his bosss distaste for negative headlines with the sort of apparatchik
gamesmanship that Bannon never bothered playing. His critics describe his
influence as being like Grímathe fictional character in J.R.R. Tolkiens
The Lord of Rings, better known as Wormtonguea silent power behind the
throne. For instance, multiple sources described how Miller has worked to
make the refugee cap irrelevant by bureaucratically kneecapping the refugee
programslowing down the interviews D.H.S. officials conduct with refugees
overseas, undercutting the staffing at the agencies that handle resettlement
in the United States, and complicating the vetting process. A current
administration official told me that Miller is having D.H.S. intentionally
make sure that we dont get anywhere close to the numbers that we agreed
to.
Miller has, at times, acted ruthlessly to cement his power and control the
information flow to the president. According to two sources familiar with
the situation, last month Miller helped orchestrate the ouster of Jennifer
Arangio, a senior director in the National Security Council division that
deals with international organizations, who Miller viewed as an opponent to
his efforts to decimate the refugee program. Arangio, a Republican who had
served Trump since the transition, fought to provide more accurate
information to the president about the issue, the two sources said,
eventually sealing her fate. She is a real Trump loyalist, like through and
through from the campaign days, the current official told me. For her to
be pushed out by Stephen Miller is more of an accomplishment I guess for him
than for some random career person to leave. Hes got the ear of the
president, and I think thats what it all comes down to, the former D.H.S.
official told me. (An administration official said they do not comment on
personnel matters.)
Perhaps as significantly, sources say, Miller has been able to help frame
the issue for Trump, both by communicating the administrations policies to
the media and by quietly suppressing information that doesnt comport with
his narrative. He claims to be speaking for the president all while
manipulating the information the president receives, so the president never
hears alternative views or argumentswhether it is evangelical support for
refugees or veterans strong commitment to providing protection to Iraqis
that fought alongside them, the former official who worked on refugee
issues told me. When the Department of Health and Human Services completed a
report that found refugees had boosted government revenues by $63 billion
over the past decade, for instance, Miller reportedly had the study
suppressed. The president believes refugees cost more, and the results of
this study shouldnt embarrass the president, he reportedly instructed
officials at the agency. (At the time, White House spokesperson Raj Shah
dismissed the report as a leak delivered by someone with an ideological
agenda and insisted refugees are not a net benefit to the U.S. economy.)
***
As Miller has shored up his influence in the West Wing, he has
simultaneously broadened his leverage as his ideological allies secure
critical positions across the government. At first, sources say, Miller
focused his efforts on installing immigration hardliners at the White House,
D.H.S., and D.O.J. [He would place] a political [appointee] that was high
up enough that they would know everything but not high up enough that they
would be in the public spotlight or needing Senate confirmation, the
current administration official told me.
Among Millers confederates is Gene Hamilton, who like Miller is a veteran
of Jeff Sessionss Senate office and was tapped early in the administration
to serve in the somewhat nebulous role of counselor to John Kelly, then the
Secretary of Homeland Security. (Hamilton took a role at D.O.J. after
Kirstjen Nielsen was named as Kellys successor at D.H.S. ) During the
refugee admissions debate last September, Hamilton was allied with Miller
against then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary James
Mattis, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Vice President Mike Pence, among
others, including Elaine Duke, the No. 2 official at D.H.S. at the time.
Stephen and Hamilton and their compadres tried to drive that number way,
way, way down, the former D.H.S. official explained, recalling that Miller
and Hamilton sought to set the cap well below 45,000 refugees, But cooler
heads prevailed. Other Miller allies reportedly include John Walk, a lawyer
in the White House counsels office and the son-in-law of Sessions; L.
Francis Cissna, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at
D.H.S.; Dimple Shah, the deputy general counsel at D.H.S.; Chad Mizelle, the
counsel to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein at Justice; and Thomas
Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
who retired earlier this year.
Miller has been particularly attentive to the refugee program at the State
Department, which flows through the bureau of Population, Refugees, and
Migration, cultivating attachés to assist his agenda. (Millers defenders
say he is working to execute the presidents agenda, not his own.) He is
definitely in empire-building mode and succeeding at it, a former
administration official who worked on refugee policy told me. Hes plugged
every hole across the U.S. government and replaced every weak link with one
of his staunch allies so that there is virtually no path forward for anyone
who cares about refugee protection. You just run up against a wall at every
path.
Millers foothold in Foggy Bottom is buttressed by two veterans of his
influential Domestic Policy Council who have recently taken posts at State.
John Zadrozny is expected to oversee refugee policy, at least in part, in
his role as a member of the Policy Planning Staff, an office that developed
outsized influence under Secretary Tillerson. And Andrew Veprek was named as
the deputy assistant secretary of State in the refugee office. Given his
relatively low foreign-service officer rank, Vepreks appointment to the
high-ranking post drew criticism and confusion. (A State Department
spokesperson disputed this characterization.) The former administration
official who worked on refugee policy suggested the ascendance of both men
had less to do with their résumés than their ideological alignment with
Miller. Their sole qualification is their willingness to do anything to
please Miller as members of the Domestic Policy Council and their only major
interest is their anti-immigration agenda, this person told me.
Veprek, who joined the bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration in
March, has proved especially vexatious to the other civil servants who work
there. Veprek is a mini-Stephen Miller, except that he is not as socially
awkward, the former official who worked on refugee issues told me. He
knows how to say things the right way but when push comes to shove, he is
willing to show his cards and there is no mistaking where his heart is.
Diplomats were provided a taste of this side of Veprek when he reportedly
raised issues with standard-fare United Nations documents that condemned
racism and posited that leaders have an obligation to denounce hate speech
and incitement. The drafters say populism and nationalism as if these are
dirty words, Veprek wrote, according to documents obtained by CNN. There
are millions of Americans who likely would describe themselves as adhering
to these concepts. (Maybe even the President.) So are we looking to here
condemn our fellow-citizens, those who pay our salaries?
***
Before Trump took office, the Population, Refugee, and Migration Bureau at
the State Department enjoyed sustained bipartisan support on Capitol Hill.
This was a fine-tuned machine, it was people that had worked together for
decades, said Robinson, who also served as the deputy assistant secretary
of state in the refugee bureau. They are the experts on refugee issuesnot
just resettlement. Under the current administration, however, refugee
issues have become a lightning rod. Current and former officials described
P.R.M. to me as a bureau under siege, with beleaguered staffers trying their
best to stay professional and keep their heads downnot always with success.
Since January 20, the majority of the bureaus top talent has been ousted or
left.
It remains an open question whether P.R.M. will survive at all, in its
current form. According to current and former officials, Mark Green, the
head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, is pushing to move
overseas humanitarian-assistance programs out of Foggy Bottomtaking a hunk
of the bureaus roughly $3.4 billion budget with it. Advocates of the move
argue that it would be more cost effective, while critics posit that it will
further marginalize refugee issues and effectively kill the P.R.M. (The
spokesperson for State said the department and USAID are working together
to develop a proposal to optimize U.S. diplomacy and assistance to displaced
people around the world, but no recommendations have been finalized.) What
principally concerns me is that weve gotten to the point where the U.S.
government is so anti-refugee that even a bureau with the word refugee in
its name has to disappear? Eric Schwartz, the president of Refugees
International and former assistant secretary of state of the refugee bureau,
told me. What a sad commentary on where we are right now.
Worse, from the perspective of Foggy Bottom, there are few senior Trump
officials willing to defend the program. Secretary Mike Pompeo, unlike his
predecessor, has not said much about P.R.M. I do think that he is going to
bat for the institution as a whole. But in terms of standing up to the White
House on particular issues, on particular policy issues, I havent seen
evidence of that so far, one current State Department official told me.
Nikki Haley, who was initially thought of as a potential torchbearer for
refugee issues as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has drawn criticism
from refugee advocates over her support of a measure to put a hold on U.N.
Relief and Works Agency funding for Palestinian refugees. Across the board
with this administration there has been no profile in courage on refugee
issues, the former official who worked on refugee issues told me. Why
would anyone cross Miller?
It is now Millers government, after all. The president and his senior
adviser for policy are fully aligned in their vision of an America Dream in
which immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers are largely excluded. It is no
surprise that the two men would seek to recalibrate the bureaucratic systems
at their control to grind resettlements to a halt. Perhaps Millers greatest
achievement, however, is how he has managed to project his influence largely
from the shadows, deploying ideological apostles to do his dirty work. He
wants to be able to put it out there, speak for the president, not have his
fingerprints on it, not risk his own political future, not get out ahead of
the boss but be able to use his anonymity to put forward these extreme views
and cast them as the presidents, said the former official who worked on
refugee affairs. He has just been a master operator on that front. His name
hasnt been on anything. He is working behind the scenes, he has planted all
of his people in all of these positions, he is on the phone with them all of
the time, and he is creating a side operation that will circumvent the
normal, transparent policy process. Miller will succeed, the former
official continued, and there wont really even be a paper trail.
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