The wrongful removal of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a prison in El Salvador has been a legal, political and moral calamity for the Trump White House. As the administration scrambles to defend its decision amid losses in court and declining poll numbers, one figure seems to have more responsibility than anyone else for this mess: Trump adviser Stephen Miller.
The reprehensible removal of Abrego Garcia is the natural result of Miller’s attempt to impose his draconian and seemingly unrealistic deportation goals as rapidly as possible, even when it means disregarding or misrepresenting court orders. DOJ lawyers defending the deportation in court have been made to look foolish. As Abrego Garcia languishes in a brutal foreign prison, and the U.S. government runs roughshod over his constitutional rights, the American people have become increasingly disgusted.
Rather than accept reality, Miller blamed the DOJ lawyer who admitted the government’s error.
Until Miller began to publicly comment, the sordid facts of Abrego Garcia’s deportation were not in dispute. Abrego Garcia was sent to El Salvador in direct violation of an existing order from an immigration judge. The government admitted that his removal to El Salvador was due to an “administrative error” and the Supreme Court unanimously ordered the government to “facilitate” his release. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers deny that he was part of MS-13, saying he came to the United States to escape gang violence.
But instead of acquiescing to the courts, Trump and his staffers have resisted, with Miller the most prominent. He heatedly claimed that Abrego Garcia was neither mistakenly removed from the country nor denied any due process. He argued that Abrego Garcia “was no longer eligible, under federal law … for any form of immigration relief in the United States” after Trump “declared MS-13 to be a foreign terrorist organization.”
That assertion was flatly wrong — and directly contradicted the government’s own position. As the Supreme Court held, “The United States acknowledges that Abrego Garcia was subject to a withholding order forbidding his removal to El Salvador, and that the removal to El Salvador was therefore illegal.”
Rather than accept reality, Miller blamed the DOJ lawyer who admitted the government’s error — Erez Reuveni, a 15-year veteran of the immigration division who had been promoted weeks earlier. In an email obtained by The New York Times announcing his promotion, Reuveni’s superiors heralded him as a “top-notched” prosecutor. Miller called him “a saboteur, a Democrat” who “put an incorrect line in a legal filing” and had subsequently been “relieved” of his duty. But Reuveni was not a rogue prosecutor. In fact, other DOJ lawyers — including Trump’s solicitor general, D. John Sauer, who argued Trump’s presidential immunity appeal last year — made the same representation.
Miller even attempted to spin the court’s unanimous denunciation of his administration’s actions into a victory for Trump. “We won the Supreme Court case, clearly, 9-0,” he told Fox News. As conservative legal analysts have demonstrated, Miller’s comments were a “brazen misrepresentation” of the court’s straightforward decision, which largely upheld the district court’s order. Yet, Trump adopted Miller’s spin: When Time magazine told Trump that the court “ruled 9-0 that you have to bring back Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” Trump replied, “That’s not what my people told me — they didn’t say it was, they said it was — the nine to nothing was something entirely different.”
The Trump administration, and Miller specifically, have set out extraordinarily ambitious goals for deportations.
After Miller’s public comments, DOJ’s subsequent filings have become increasingly recalcitrant and misleading. The government has confusingly called the Supreme Court’s directive — “to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador” — a “false premise” (while misquoting the court’s order), and has resisted the district court’s expedited discovery orders. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who initially told the government to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return, called the government’s refusal “willful and bad faith.”
The Abrego Garcia fiasco is not the only instance in which Miller’s mix of disingenuousness and sloppiness have caused calamity. CBS News’ “60 Minutes” reported this month that it could not find criminal records for 75% of the Venezuelans who were sent to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador. Not only have these machinations drawn the ire of the lower courts, but the administration now may also be losing credibility with the Supreme Court — including some Republican-appointed justices — as reflected in its unusual emergency order last Saturday, which immediately halted the deportation of immigrants in Texas. Why is Miller doing this? Contempt for the rule of law and authoritarian tendencies come to mind. But beyond that lurks another less insidious but equally dangerous possibility: fear of failure. The Trump administration, and Miller specifically, have set out extraordinarily ambitious goals for deportations. Earlier this month, The Washington Post reported that the administration is attempting to deport at least 1 million immigrants this year. But, as the Post noted, “Analysts say the available statistics make that target appear unrealistic, if not impossible, given funding, staffing levels and the fact that most immigrants have the right to a court hearing before being removed from the country.” Meanwhile, support for the president’s immigration policies — a traditional stronghold for Trump — is slipping. In a new Washington Post/ABC poll, 53% of Americans disapprove of his immigration record up from 48% two months ago. Only 26% think Abrego Garcia should remain in El Salvador. The high-profile fights over Abrego Garcia and the other removals to El Salvador reflect both the administration’s desperation, and help obscure the reality that Miller and Trump are falling short of their own promises. Just as Elon Musk’s zeal to dismantle the federal government dented Trump’s popularity, so too has Miller’s desire to steamroll on immigration and the courts. As the judiciary holds firm to protect the law and due process, Miller’s influence may become an albatross around Trump.
Joshua Kolb
Joshua Kolb is counsel and manager of Rapid Legal Response at State Democracy Defenders Action.
Susan Corke
Susan Corke is the executive director of State Democracy Defenders Action. She has served in senior leadership roles at the Southern Poverty Law Center, German Marshall Fund of the U.S., Freedom House, Human Rights First and the U.S. Department of State. 
