The stain that the Trump administration’s disastrous family separation policy left behind is even bigger than you might have assumed. NBC News reports that in October 2019, the Trump administration blocked the Justice Department from settling a federal lawsuit that would pay for mental health services of migrant families who were forcibly separated by federal authorities at the U.S.-Mexico border. According to multiple sources, this decision was made after consulting with senior Trump adviser and white supremacy enthusiast, Stephen Miller.
From NBC News:
“DOJ strongly, and unanimously, supported the settlement, but not all agencies involved were on the same page,” an administration official said. “Ultimately, the settlement was declined at the direction of the White House counsel’s office.”
Another administration official said: “Ultimately, it was Stephen who prevailed. He squashed it.”
The White House’s refusal to accept the deal ended up costing taxpayers $6 million.
A former Justice Department official said that immigration issues routinely got kicked to the White House and that there it was expected that Miller would get involved.
A former Justice Department official told NBC News that Miller, the architect of the Trump administration’s most regressive immigration policies, was regularly involved in immigration matters such as this. A White House official denied Miller had a hand in the suit, adding that “any suggestion that he was is false.” But this abject cruelty is certainly Miller’s style.