Donald Trump appoints Stephen Miller as chief of staff despite voter backlash on immigration
Following an election where voters rejected Republican candidates and repudiated federal deportation operations, US President Donald Trump named Stephen Miller as his White House chief of staff on Friday. The appointment of the 41-year-old adviser signals that the administration will accelerate its hardline immigration agenda despite electoral pushback.
Miller has long been the primary architect of Trump's strictest border policies, from the first-term travel ban on Muslim-majority nations to the zero-tolerance policy that separated over 5,600 children from their families. Recently, he directed raids by masked agents in residential streets, pushed to deport undocumented children, and proposed invoking the Insurrection Act after nurse Alex Pretti was killed during raids in Minneapolis. He also devised legal arguments under the Alien Enemies Act to expel Venezuelan migrants to a Salvadoran megaprison.
While Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth praised Miller as an uncompromising patriot, advocacy groups like Raíces warned of escalating force in communities. With Democrats retaking control of Congress, lawmakers including Representative Robert Garcia and Senator Alex Padilla pledged vigorous resistance, promising to use subpoenas and funding oversight to investigate Miller's actions.
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