Democrats in the House and the Senate introduced a joint resolution Thursday demanding the resignation of White House senior adviser Stephen Miller over his white nationalist views and racist, anti-immigrant policies.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) introduced the resolution in their respective chambers. It condemns Miller “for his trafficking in bigotry, hatred, and divisive political rhetoric and policies that are inconsistent with the trust and confidence placed in him as a Senior Advisor to the President,” according to the text.
“Stephen Miller is the hateful force behind the cruel and xenophobic policies that have defined the Trump administration,” Harris said in a statement. “His white supremacist, anti-immigrant ideology has no place in our country, let alone the White House.”
Harris led a large group of senators in December in demanding the White House fire Miller in light of leaked emails that showed more evidence of his white nationalist beliefs. The resolution cited the emails’ content as one of the reasons to condemn Miller and call for his removal.
In November, the Southern Poverty Law Center published a series of bombshell reports analyzing 900 emails Miller sent to far-right website Breitbart from 2015 to 2016, when he was working for then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). The emails revealed Miller actively influencing Breitbart stories related to race and immigration by encouraging writers and editors to look to explicitly white supremacist texts and websites.
At the time of the email leak, HuffPost contacted the office of every member of Congress to ask whether Miller should resign. More than 80 representatives and over 20 senators ― all Democrats ― called for Miller’s removal, including Castro.
“It is unacceptable for the Trump administration to knowingly install a known white nationalist and believer of white supremacist ideology in a position of power and influence over federal policy,” Castro said in a statement Thursday. “Stephen Miller’s presence in the Trump White House has allowed him to sow hate into federal policy, grind our immigration system to a halt, and encourage the President’s own xenophobic beliefs.”
The resolution also cites Miller’s responsibilities as the architect of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, including separating migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border, detaining migrant children in inhumane conditions and banning immigration from several majority-Muslim countries.
“Americans, and in particular the Latino community, will never forget it was President Trump and Stephen Miller’s hateful rhetoric that helped inspire the deadly attack in El Paso where 22 individuals were killed for being Latino,” said Castro, who chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. “When we see the families suffering at the border or being torn apart by ICE raids, we can look to Stephen Miller as the main architect of the Administration’s cruel anti-immigrant policies. He must be removed from the White House immediately to stop further damage to our country and our communities.”
The SPLC said Thursday that it fully supports the resolution condemning Miller, adding that all members of Congress should be demanding the White House remove him from power.
“Stephen Miller is a bigot whose anti-immigrant vitriol has poisoned our national policy,” SPLC Action Fund CEO Karen Baynes-Dunning said in a statement. “Hate and bigotry have no place in our government and should certainly not be allowed to influence the policies of our nation.”
Read the resolution below: