Stephen Miller, a top advisor to the White House, brushed off what he called a “dumb question” concerning claims of racial profiling in immigration raids during a tense CNN interview.
Miller spoke with host Boris Sanchez on President Donald Trump’s plan to send National Guard troops to Illinois to guard Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities.
Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois spoke out against the move, calling it an “invasion” by the Trump administration, and said that ICE agents were bothering people just because of their race.
“Is it the case that, as Pritzker frames it, you are profiling Brown people, that this immigration crackdown is designed to go after people of color?” Sanchez asked.
“Oh, what a dumb question,” Miller laughed. “The illegal aliens who are here are taking jobs away from Blacks. They’re taking jobs away from Whites. They’re taking jobs away from Latinos. They’re taking their health benefits away. They’re taking their school slots away. And of course, in many cases, they’re committing heinous crimes. We cannot have a system of law in this country that privileges illegal aliens over American citizens. And that’s what they’re doing. You know it, and I know it.”
“So that’s not exactly a no, Stephen,” Sanchez responded. “Can you just unequivocally state that immigration policies—”
“I said it was a dumb question.” Miller interrupted. “OK, no, and it was a dumb question.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Sanchez took issue with Miller describing ICE protesters as “terrorists.”
“Isn’t that hyperbolic to call them terrorists?” Sanchez asked.
“No. If anything, I’m understating the severity of the situation,” Miller said. “What issue was more central in 2024 than turning back the border invasion? And since the day we came in, ICE officers have been subjected to a nonstop campaign of physical violence and harassment every single day, and outside the Portland field office, in particular, every night.”
He added, “They come. They assemble. They fight. They try to impede movement. They physically attack. For what purpose? Because we had an election, Boris. We had one. What’s the purpose? To use actual physical violence to change the result of the election. To say you cannot turn back the border invasion. Do you have any idea how many resources we have had to redesignate to deal with these street terrorists?”
Sanchez also asked Miller whether there were concerns over a future Democratic president sending National Guard troops to red states over “what amounts to a demonstration that gets rowdy.”
“They’re posting pictures of their kids because it’s a demonstration.” Miller responded sarcastically. “They have a sniper on top of a building firing a high-caliber rifle at an ICE facility because it’s a demonstration, and they are engaged in a vehicle-ramming attacks because it’s a demonstration.”
