House Democrats shouldn't let Stephen Miller weasel out of testifying to them under oath

The new acting secretary of Homeland Security, Kevin McAleenan, might be claiming that family separation at the southern border “is not on the table,” but immigrant rights advocates are remaining skeptical because of two words: Stephen Miller. The White House aide and white supremacist has authored or helped guide some of the worst policies in U.S. history and has shown himself to be more powerful than actual department leaders. 

Yet with all his power, he’s apparently immune from duties common among department leaders, like appearing before congressional lawmakers at their request. “The White House has—predictably—refused to allow Miller to testify before the House Oversight Committee,” Daily Kos’s Laura Clawson writes. “In addition to the reflex of blocking any and every request from the House now that it’s controlled by Democrats, there is a precedent that White House aides rarely testify.”

How’s that for some bullshit? But Miller isn’t any normal aide, he’s a hateful shit who cut his anti-immigrant teeth as an aide to former Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, another racist, and since elevating to power in the Trump White House has authored or helped implement barbaric policies from family separation, to ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, to the Muslim ban, to using human beings as political pawns in the administration’s fight against so-called sanctuary cities. And as America’s Voice notes, many of these horrific policies keep losing in court.

Miller was not confirmed by the Senate but he’s gotten rid of Senate-confirmed, top government officials. His vast policies have taken a sledgehammer to the Statue of Liberty and left children screaming for their mothers, yet apparently there’s also precedent that taxpayer-paid staffers in his position don’t have to appear before the nation’s oversight body, and the administration wants that respected. Because we all know how much this god-forsaken administration gives a shit about precedent. 

Once again—if Miller wants to act like a department head, House Democrats need to treat him like one. Get this ghoul under oath, and fight like hell if he keeps refusing. “Color us skeptical about McAleenan’s blanket dismissal of reinstituting family separations,” said Pili Tobar of America’s Voice. “Especially given reports that Stephen Miller is still pushing for the policy. We remain concerned that the Trump administration is seeking to detain adults for as long as it takes before they are deported, while giving parents a ‘Sophie’s choice’ of indefinite detention with their children or without their children.”

from Daily Kos http://bit.ly/2LhZoH9