White House aide Stephen Miller argued that Americans who have been harmed by undocumented immigrants and immigration policies enacted by the Democratic Party should receive “reparations.”
Miller, who serves as President Donald Trump‘s deputy chief of staff for policy, appeared on Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight” on Friday night, where he discussed the Trump administration’s immigration policies, which include the mass deportation of undocumented people living in the United States.
During the news segment, Miller said Americans should receive “reparations” for the “damages” as a result of crimes committed by non-citizens, including violence and drug trafficking, and the impacts on communities across the country.
“We had an entire generation of Americans, multiple generations, in fact, have been robbed of educational opportunities. Entire cities. Look at Los Angeles…once a paradise of safety, security and prosperity, entire neighborhoods occupied and controlled by foreign gangs,” said Miller, who was the architect of President Trump’s controversial family separation and travel ban policies at the U.S. border during his first term.
“Where do all the residents who have been displaced, who have been forced out of Los Angeles…where do they go to get their reparations?”
Miller continued, “What about the victims of fentanyl poisoning brought in by Democrats’ open border, hundreds of thousands of moms and dads whose kids are dead and buried in the ground. Where do they go to get their reparations from the government, and then all the women who have been raped, who’ve been beated, who’ve been murdered. All the dads who’ve been shot dead and our home. All the police officers who have been slain by illegal aliens in ambush attacks in the line of duty.”
He added, “Where does our whole country go to get repaid for all of the wealth, all of the prosperity and security that has been stolen from us by decades of uncontrolled, illegal mass migration? Because we all deserve reparations…for what has been stolen from us.”
Miller used the term reparations at least three times during the segment, which is unusual given how it’s been historically used in the United States regarding descendants of enslaved African Americans.
Near the end of the American Civil War in 1865, Union General William T. Sherman, in a wartime order, notably promised land—40 acres and a mule to be exact—to newly freed African Americans. That unfulfilled promise and subsequent policies enacted during the post-Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras have led to decades-long advocacy to exact reparations for African Americans.
In February, U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., reintroduced H.R. 40, a more than 35-year-old legislation that would study the impacts of U.S. slavery and potential reparation proposals. Pressley called the bill a “meaningful step toward repairing the deep, structural injustices that continue to harm Black communities today.”
Jamarr Brown, executive director of Color of Change PAC, called Miller’s comments “appalling” as the issue is “something Black communities have spent generations fighting for.” Brown told theGrio that Miller instead “twisted” the concept into a “tool for hate and disinformation.”
“Reparations are a long-overdue economic reckoning for the generations of harm inflicted on Black Americans, whose ancestors were enslaved, exploited, and denied the wealth they created,” said the political operative. “Instead of pushing for justice for the communities that continue to bear the brunt of systemic racism, Miller and his allies are advocating financial support for people who come from the very communities that historically inflicted harm.”
Brown added, “It’s a new form of reverse racism, built to inflame racial resentment and distract from the fact that the U.S. has demonstrated that reparations are possible, just not for us.”
“The increasing distortion and weaponization of reparations is not accidental, it’s a strategy to misinform, mislead, and impede valid justice claims,” Dreisen Heath, an advocate and reparations researcher, told theGrio. “Black Americans’ fight for true reparations will not be co-opted and misappropriated for racist anti-immigrant fear-mongering operations. The American public shouldn’t fall for this amateur narrative trap.”
Brandon Weathersby, a spokesperson for American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal research firm, said Miller’s “rant” is another example of the Trump administration’s “obsession with petty vendettas and grievance politics while ignoring the real issues Americans care about.”
He told theGrio, “Instead of tackling skyrocketing costs and improving people’s lives, they’re obsessed with attacking immigrants and minorities to distract from their total failure to deliver on the economy.” Weathersby added, “Voters didn’t elect Trump and Republicans to wage grievances. They elected them to fix the economy, and they’ve failed.”
Marcus Anthony Hunter, UCLA professor and author of “Radical Reparations: Healing the Soul of the Nation,” previously told theGrio, “It’s really important that we are not so loose with the word reparations.”
“It’s important that we don’t start misusing that term, especially as we’re still trying to educate people about what it means,” said Hunter. “If we’re going to have a reparations conversation, I prefer for it to be on terms that work within the actual concept.”
