CNN’s Jake Tapper and White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller clashed over President Trump’s immigration policies on Tuesday, as the Trump administration has ramped up efforts to stop migration at the border and deport people in the country illegally.
Miller joined Tapper for “The Lead” on Tuesday to discuss the ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in various communities across the country, resulting in a tense conversation on air.
“What is the priority, though, when it comes to these deportations?” Tapper asked. “Is the initial goal, as we have been told by Trump allies after the election, to go after those first as a priority … who have committed violent crimes and are part of violent gangs?”
“Or is it, we’re just going to go after anybody who is in this country illegally?” he continued.
Miller said the Trump administration is going to prioritize migrants who are “public safety threats and national security threats.” He slammed the Biden administration and its immigration policies, while providing Tapper with “a hypothetical” about someone who had not committed a violent crime.
“Let’s say that an illegal alien arrived in the last three months of the Biden administration, from say, Peru. He was released, he failed to appear in immigration court. He was issued a final removal order,” Miller said, asking, “Is it your position, Jake, that that guy should get to stay until the end of his life? I mean, what kind of country can run that way?”
Tapper changed his line of questioning, asking Miller if troops would be headed to U.S. cities to arrest immigrants without legal status. Trump previously did not rule out using the military for the deportation plan.
Miller, too, didn’t rule out invoking the Insurrection Act. He said it’s being considered for operational needs at the country’s southern border but had not been invoked for service members to head elsewhere in the country under the mission.
“All right, so you’re not ruling it out, but that’s not the plan right now,” Tapper said.
Tapper then turned to the matter of American life after deportations. He noted the high percentage of people without legal status who work in the country’s agriculture industry. With many fearing deportations, the price of food may go up, despite Trump campaigning on lowering grocery prices, he said.
Miller argued that most of the immigrants arriving without legal status in the country are heading to large cities and industrial towns.
Tapper interjected, noting he was changing the subject.
“The illegal aliens Joe Biden brought into our country are not, full stop, doing farm work. They are not,” Miller shot back. “The illegal aliens he brought in are from Venezuela, from Haiti, from Nicaragua. They are not doing farm work.”
Miller later added, “As for the farmers, there is a guest worker program that President Trump supports.”
Still, Miller argued that “there’s no universe” in which the Trump administration won’t scale back the Biden administration’s immigration policies.
“We are going to, unapologetically, enforce our immigration laws,” he said.
