During a 2019 White House meeting on asylum and immigration policy, senior policy advisor Stephen Miller said that limiting asylum in the US was all that mattered to him.
In an extended profile on Mr Miller published in The New Yorker, the vehemently anti-immigrant, alleged white nationalist, reportedly said: “I didn’t mean to come across as harsh. It’s just that this is all I care about. I don’t have a family. I don’t have anything else. This is my life.”
Mr Miller was engaged to Katie Waldman, vice president Mike Pence’s press secretary, at the time of the meeting. Ms Waldman and Mr Miller married at the International Hotel over Presidents’ Day weekend this year.
Download the new Independent Premium app
Sharing the full story, not just the headlines
Download now
The meeting at which he made the comments is said to have included representatives from the departments of state, homeland security and justice.
On the agenda was a new policy to limit asylum seekers from settling in the US by forming agreements with Central American countries that would force them to settle there instead.
left
Created with Sketch.
right
Created with Sketch.
1/8
Mishawaka, Indiana
AP
2/8
Washington DC
AFP/
3/8
New York Mayor Bill De Blasio speaks in Tornillo, Texas alongside the many other US mayors who have called for detained immigrant children to be reunited with their families
AP
4/8
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Kelle leaves a teddy bear as a gift for detained immigrant children in Tornillo, Texas
AP
5/8
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti leave sandals as gifts for detained immigrant children in Tornillo, Texas
AP
6/8
San Diego, California
EPA
7/8
US embassy, Mexico City
AFP/
8/8
San Diego, California
EPA
1/8
Mishawaka, Indiana
AP
2/8
Washington DC
AFP/
3/8
New York Mayor Bill De Blasio speaks in Tornillo, Texas alongside the many other US mayors who have called for detained immigrant children to be reunited with their families
AP
4/8
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Kelle leaves a teddy bear as a gift for detained immigrant children in Tornillo, Texas
AP
5/8
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti leave sandals as gifts for detained immigrant children in Tornillo, Texas
AP
6/8
San Diego, California
EPA
7/8
US embassy, Mexico City
AFP/
8/8
San Diego, California
EPA
Mr Miller is the face of the administration’s harsh line on asylum and immigration.
Watch more
He has a hand in all related policies, including family separation at the border and the travel ban.
Giving credence to the latest account of Mr Miller’s obsession with immigration, in August 2019, The Washington Post quoted a senior administration official as saying that Mr Miller is “singularly focused on how to get people out of the country”.
