Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley today joined 25 of their colleagues in a letter to Donald Trump demanding the immediate removal of Stephen Miller from his position as a White House senior adviser.
The letter follows recent reports detailing over 900 e-mails, sent from Miller to far-right Breitbart News between 2015 and 2016, which confirm that Miller worked to advance white nationalist, anti-immigrant ideologies. In the letter, the senators connect the e-mails to specific immigration policies Miller has implemented in his current position.
“Mr. Miller’s demonstrable white nationalist ideology has directly translated into your administration’s policies, which have been widely criticized for systematically targeting communities of color,” the senators wrote. “The Muslim ban targeted individuals of color and caused chaos at U.S. airports around the country, wreaking havoc on the lives of countless individuals and families. The family separation policy tore children from their families, resulting in widely reported mistreatment and human rights abuses of immigrants in detention facilities nationwide.”
The senators continued, “When someone takes an oath to work in the White House and earn a taxpayer-funded salary, they work for the people, not a divisive, harmful, and hateful ideology. These e-mails clearly show what is driving Mr. Miller. It’s not national security, it’s white supremacy—something that has no place in our country, federal government, and especially not the White House. Mr. Miller’s views go against everything we stand for as a country. They are unacceptable and unjust. Simply put, Mr. Miller is unfit to serve in any capacity at the White House, let alone as a senior policy adviser. We demand that you remove Stephen Miller immediately.”
Joining Wyden and Merkley on the letter are U.S. Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Chris Coons, D-Del., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Mazie K. Hirono, D-Hawaii, Cory Booker, D-N.J., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., Jack Reed, D-R.I., Ed Markey, D-Mass., Bob Casey, D-Penn., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Patty Murray, D-Wash., Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.
The letter has the support of Southern Poverty Law Center, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Bend The Arc, Immigration Hub, National Immigrant Justice Center, Center for American Progress and Families Belong Together.
Wyden and Merkley have both previously called for Stephen Miller to resign. Merkley also led a previous effort, which Wyden joined, pressuring then-President-Elect Trump to fire Steve Bannon as his Chief Strategist. Bannon, like Miller, had a leading role in promoting white nationalist ideologies at Breitbart News. He was fired less than a year into his White House tenure.
A copy of the letter is available here.
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