Stephen Miller says US asylum system effectively closed
Washington, June 26 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) The Trump administration has effectively closed the United States to asylum seekers and will continue expanding deportations, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said, outlining the administration’s hardline immigration agenda.
In an exchange with reporters at the White House, Miller said the administration has entered into agreements with other countries to receive people seeking asylum instead of allowing them to remain in the United States.
“I think what’s important point is that this administration on the asylum court is being implemented, international agreements all over the world to take in our asylum seekers,” he said. “So America’s doors are closed fully to asylum seekers. We’ve set up agreements where if you want asylum, then we will find a country elsewhere in the world.”
He also defended the administration’s broader immigration policy, arguing that illegal immigration fuels transnational criminal organisations.
“The most humanitarian thing that we can do is which is what we are doing and have done, which is to end illegal immigration,” Miller said. He alleged that migrants travelling illegally to the United States were often smuggled by cartels and that the proceeds supported criminal activities, including drug trafficking and human trafficking.
Miller claimed that asylum applications made by migrants crossing the southern border were largely without merit.
“As you know, you’ve probably heard many times reports that all asylum claims across the border are always fake,” he said, adding that many migrants were economic migrants rather than people fleeing persecution.
He credited President Donald Trump’s immigration policies with sharply reducing releases of migrants at the southern border.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, there have been 13 or 14 consecutive months without a single person released across the southern border. It’s never been achieved before,” he said.
Asked about deportation policy following recent court decisions, Miller said additional funding approved for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), combined with administrative changes, would increase enforcement operations.
“You’ve seen continuing budgetary reforms at ICE to make sure the resources are being allocated efficiently as possible towards actual enforcement and removal operations,” he said. He added that new funding approved through Congress “will allow deportation numbers to continue to climb.”
Responding to questions about Haitians whose temporary legal protections have been affected by recent legal developments, Miller said, “Of course, if you no longer have status in this country, then you’re supposed to be deported.”
He argued that many Haitians who entered the United States under the previous administration still had their families and social ties in Haiti.
“And of course, that’s where they should go,” he said.
Asked whether the administration considered Haiti safe despite U.S. travel advisories, Miller replied: “For Haitians. Absolutely.”
“The fact that there might be pockets of Haiti with this higher crime rates… it has never been the case that having communities that have high crime rates is a basis for asylum. Never has been, never will be,” he said.
Immigration has remained the central domestic policy issue of President Trump’s second administration. Since returning to office, the administration has moved to tighten border controls, accelerate deportations and restrict access to several humanitarian immigration programmes introduced under former President Joe Biden.
The administration has also sought to reshape long-standing immigration policies through executive actions and litigation, including its effort to end automatic birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to certain non-citizen parents. Several of those measures remain the subject of ongoing court challenges.
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