Stephen Miller can't make America white. LA is paying for his impotent rage
By: Amanda Marcotte (Salon)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Donald Trump loves authoritarian theater, but let's not forget that Stephen Miller is also to blame for the violence and chaos in Los Angeles. Last week, the right-wing Washington Examiner reported that Trump's deputy chief of staff called a meeting with the top officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to "eviscerate" them for falling far short of the ridiculous goal he set of 3,000 deportations a day. In their desperation to keep Miller happy, ICE has already been targeting legal immigrants for deportation, mostly because they're easy to find, due to having registered with the government. ICE agents stake out immigration hearings for people with refugee status and round up people here with work or student visas for minor offenses like speeding tickets, all to get the numbers up. But these actions were not enough for Miller.
"Why aren't you at Home Depot? Why aren't you at 7-Eleven?" he reportedly screamed at ICE officials. One ICE leader protested that the agency's lead, Tom Homan, said they're supposed to be going after criminals, not people who are just working everyday jobs. Miller reportedly hit the ceiling, furious that arrests aren't widespread and indiscriminate. Trump has repeatedly implied he was only targeting criminals, but as Charles Davis reported at Salon, that conflicts with his promise of "mass deportations." Undocumented immigrants commit crimes at far lower rates than native-born Americans. The expansive efforts to find and arrest immigrants in California, which kicked off the protests, appear to be a direct reaction to Miller's orders to grab as many people as possible, regardless of innocence.
For Miller, the goal of "mass deportations" has never been about law and order, but about the fantasy of a white America.
But Miller doesn't seem to care about crime. Or, perhaps he thinks having darker skin should be a crime. For Miller, the goal of "mass deportations" has never been about law and order, but about the fantasy of a white America. His desire to deport his way to racial homogeneity has always been not only deeply immoral, but pretty much impossible. His impotence shouldn't breed complacency, however. As the violence in Los Angeles shows, petty rage can lead to all manner of evils.
The term "white nationalist" is often used interchangeably with "white supremacist," but it has a specific meaning. White supremacists think the government should enshrine white people as a privileged class over all others. White nationalists, however, want America to be mostly, if not entirely, white — a goal that cannot be accomplished without mass violence. That Miller appears to lean more into the white nationalist camp is well known. In 2019, the Southern Poverty Law Center reviewed a pile of leaked emails Miller had sent to media allies that illustrated his obsession with white-ifying America. He repeatedly denounced legal immigration of non-white people and endorsed the idea that racial diversity is a threat to white people. He longed for a return to pre-1965 laws that banned most non-white immigrants from moving to America.
"Trump's mass deportation project is actually a demographic engineering project," Adam Serwer of the Atlantic explained on a recent Bulwark podcast, pointing to the administration's expulsion of legal refugees of color while making exceptions to the "no refugee" policy for white South Africans. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau defended the exception by claiming that "they can be assimilated easily into our country."
But it's clear this language is code for "white." By any good-faith definition of the word, thousands of non-white people targeted for deportation have also assimilated. They have jobs. They get married. They have kids. They are part of their communities.
Sure enough, a sea of MAGA influencers have responded to the Los Angeles protests like parrots trained quite suddenly to say "ban third world immigration."
Charlie Kirk from Turning Point USA followed up by praising Steve Sailer, a white supremacist who peddles debunked "race science" falsely claiming skin color and ethnicity controls IQ. The Groypers, a Hitler-praising group that doesn't even pretend not to be racist, was ecstatic to see MAGA leaders edge closer to openly admitting to being white nationalists.
Miller's whites-only dreams aren't going to happen, though it's unclear if he's delusional enough to think otherwise. White non-Hispanic Americans are 58% of the population, according to the Census. That means nearly 143 million Americans — most of whom are citizens— fall outside the strict parameters of what white nationalists like Miller would see as "white people." Even if the Trump administration met its unlikely goal of deporting 11 million people, this would still be a racially diverse country by any measure. And it's becoming more diverse: the non-white population is younger and having more children.
If it feels gross to treat human beings like a math problem, that's because it is. But that's what we're dealing with: an administration, led by a would-be strong man and his little deputy, that can't engineer American demographics, no matter how hard they might try. MAGA Republicans flip out when liberals correctly point out that diversity is America's strength. But what really makes them crazy is knowing, deep down, that diversity is America's inevitability.
This impotent rage factor is important for understanding what's happening in Los Angeles. Trump and Miller can't achieve their whites-only dreams, so they're lashing out violently at communities, like in southern California, that remind them of their powerlessness in this department.
Make no mistake: the Trump administration is the instigator here, and not just because they sent ICE in to start nabbing people willy-nilly. As Judd Legum of Popular Information carefully detailed on Monday, the violence began because Trump called the National Guard. Before that, the protests had been relatively small and contained. The Los Angeles Police Department released a statement commending the protesters for their cooperation and peacefulness, which led to a demonstration "without incident."
Trump started the chaos by sending in the National Guard. He wants violent visuals for right-wing media to run on a constant loop to serve his authoritarian agenda. When the protesters in Los Angeles didn't give Trump the imagery he wanted, he deliberately escalated and lied about the reasons. Now he is celebrating his victory because of the violence he unleashed. He's not subtle, and it's a failure of the media every time they report on the "violence" without noting that Trump was the instigator.
Small, weak men can cause a lot of damage. No one should be complacent about either the violence in Los Angeles or the thousands of lives being destroyed by these deportation schemes. But it's also important to not be cowed by Trump and Miller's theater, which they put on in no small part to conceal the myriad ways they will never be as all-powerful as they promised their supporters they would be. Understanding this can help people find the courage needed to fight back, because the best shot that MAGA has at winning is if their opponents give up the struggle. Already the administration's overreach is creating a backlash:
Crowds at the LA Football Club chanting F--k ICE! Music to my ears!
[image or embed]
— JonZoidberg (@jonzoidberg.xyz) June 10, 2025 at 8:48 AM
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Terry Moran told the truth about Miller, and was fired by ABC News for it. But the truth is known, now it just needs to be spread.
Does the federal government have the right to enforce the law or not?
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I was listening to Morning Joe this morning and they brought up the case of a man working in a factory in Los Angeles. ICE raided the factory and swept a bunch of people up, one of them being this man who has lived in LA for 27 years, has four kids, and does not have any police record at all. But he was there in that location , and is not a citizen. So he was arrested and will presumably be deported. Is that what America means to you Sean ?
So which laws do you want to overlook John, Was nobody is above the law just bullshit hypocrisy? or do we follow the law, just looking for what level of hypocrisy the democrats are willing to stoop too?
Does the federal government have the right to enforce the law or not?
He's had 27 years to became a citizen. Most of those being deported are adjudicated criminals who have been through the legal system. Sometimes people like this are caught up in the round up, but it's their own fault
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ever since the maga POS/POTUS and his appointees took office ...
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Not when Trump is the suspect, apparently.
Does the state of New York have the right to enforce the law?
Anyway, do you see people saying the government doesn’t have the right to enforce the law?
What people want is that the law be enforced fairly and humanely - in a manner that accords with what was promised.
And finally, arresting people who are in court for a hearing on immigration status is bullshit, stupid, and in many cases, probably illegal.
It was apparent even in Trump's first administration that Steven Miller is evil and deranged.
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Where were all these Republican voters in Texas and border states the last 50 to 60 years?? They elected a majority of Republicans who turned a blind eye to exploit cheap labor.
George Bush defended migrant labor saying "they do the jobs that Americans won't do" and on that point he was absolutely correct.
Saint Reagan supported amnesty programs, so did George Sr., George Jr., Jeb Bush as governor of Florida, and many Republicans approved and allowed unchecked immigration.
It's exactly why Republicans kicked the can down the road on immigration every single time! They just used their own turning a blind eye to immigration in order to appease their donors who want the cheap labor.
This situation didn't happen overnight and it didn't happen without Republicans having a hand in it. Reagan went from governor of California to the White House.
Bush went from governor of Texas to the White House. More than half the old geezer brigade in the Republican party went along with amnesty, and ignoring immigration for YEARS!!!
This is just a whopping big example of how Republicans deliberately create a problem to blame on Democrats.
Sick of the never ending hypocrisy on how Republicans create deficits only to rail against poor people and immigrants who had nothing to do with the problems Republicans are happy to create in order to play pass buck on others.
Yes.
Yes. Americans were smarter back then.
No.
W. was negotiating an immigration treaty with Mexico on Sept 10, 2001. It was shelved on the 11th, for obvious reasons.
It's almost as though you are supporting the current hard-line stance.