Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy
Appointed as assistant to the president, deputy chief of staff for policy, and homeland security advisor on January 20, 2025. Previously served as senior advisor during the first Trump administration (2017-2021) where he architected the family separation policy and Muslim travel ban. Widely described as the lead architect of the second-term immigration agenda, Miller directed the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act for mass deportations, the rescission of sensitive locations protections allowing ICE raids on churches, schools, and hospitals, the shutdown of the CBP One asylum app, the reimposition of Remain in Mexico, and the termination of TPS for hundreds of thousands of residents. Oversaw the CECOT deportation pipeline to El Salvador and expansion of the expanded travel ban.
Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern
The administration invoked a rarely used 1798 wartime statute to justify accelerated removals of Venezuelan nationals, including transfers into El Salvador's detention system, prompting immediate litigation over both process and statutory scope.
Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation
The immediate shutdown of the CBP One asylum scheduling app on Inauguration Day cancelled 30,000 appointments and stranded 270,000 asylum seekers, eliminating the primary legal pathway to request protection at the US border.
Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation
Immigration enforcement separated at least 11,000 US citizen children from their parents, with children held in government custody for an average of six months while officials used reunification processes as traps to arrest parents and caregivers.
Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation
A sweeping expansion of travel restrictions targeting predominantly Muslim-majority and African nations, growing from the original first-term ban to cover 39 countries. The bans affect millions of people and have been widely characterized as religious and racial discrimination codified into immigration policy.
Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation
The rescission of the sensitive locations policy removed decades-old protections for churches, schools, hospitals, and shelters (courthouse arrests were governed by a separate ICE directive, also loosened in January 2025) from immigration enforcement. The rescission coincided with a broader surge in arrests of non-criminal immigrants and chilled access to essential services including healthcare and education.
Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation
TPS was terminated or targeted for termination across 11 countries, de-documenting over 1 million people. Federal courts have blocked or paused several terminations. The State Department maintains 'Do Not Travel' advisories for many of the same countries DHS claims are safe for return.
Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation
The administration imposed an unprecedented total ban on asylum claims at the southern border, shutting down the CBP One app and eliminating all avenues for protection. A federal judge ruled the president 'cannot adopt an alternative immigration system which supplants the statutes that Congress has enacted.'
Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern
252 Venezuelans were secretly deported to CECOT, where HRW documented torture, sexual violence, prolonged incommunicado detention, and denial of basic necessities. At least 48.8% had no criminal history in the United States, and at least 62 had asylum cases pending. All 252 were sent to Venezuela in a July 18, 2025 prisoner exchange.