Dear Editor,

Where does Stephen Miller — someone no one has ever heard of — get off on setting American immigration policies that are morally reprehensible and harm millions of human beings?

Miller is a former Breibart News hack that is now an assistant in Trump’s White House in charge of setting U.S. immigration policies. Trump placed in this guy’s hands the revocation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA, the Zero Tolerance Policy, and the proposed to place a major roadblock for immigrants to coming to America.

DACA recipients are often referred to as Dreamers. They now fall between ages 16 and 35; the vast majority came from Mexico. The DACA status has been issued to roughly 800,000 people. In early January, the Federal District Court in San Francisco ruled the administration had abused its discretion and issued a nationwide preliminary injunction that allowed Dreamers to renew their status.

Most Dreamers are making significant contributions to America, including serving in America’s military.

Next, Miller authored the so-called “Zero Tolerance Policy.” This policy has the effect of separating parents from their children when they enter the country, because parents are referred for prosecution –even though they are seeking protective custody — and the children are placed in a shelter.

Separating children from their parents is an abomination causing lasting harm. Thankfully, the courts have ruled against this policy, due to an ACLU law suit. Over 3,000 children were separated from their parents, one has died and over 500 have still not been reunited and may never be.

Miller’s latest is for the Trump administration to issue a plan that would make it harder for legal immigrants to become citizens or get green cards if they have ever used a range of popular public welfare programs, including Obamacare, CHIP, food stamps or other benefits.

Immigration lawyers and advocates and public health researchers say it would be the biggest change to the legal immigration system in decades and estimate that more than 20 million immigrants could be affected. They say the plan would fall particularly hard on immigrants working jobs that don’t pay enough to support their families.

Is this the “Nation of Immigrants” that we have become?

Fire Stephen Miller, and stuff his immigration policies!

Bill Bryant

St. Clairsville