Washington —Top advisor to Trump Stephen Millerwho is expected to assume the role of White House chief of staff on Monday, has shepherded President Trump’s most controversial immigration policies during his two administrations.
Mr. Trump announced a staff shakeup Friday, calling Miller one of his “most trusted” advisers. Miller replaces Susie Wiles, who served as his chief of staff throughout his second term.
This decision comes after the Republicans suffered crushing losses in midterm elections and as Democrats plan sweeping investigations into the administration’s actions, including its immigration enforcement policies.
Miller was the architect of many of these policies and also championed the administration’s expansion of immigration enforcement, which was supported by approximately $170 billion that congressional Republicans allocated for immigration enforcement and border security as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which became law in July 2025.
During Mr. Trump’s first term, Miller helped develop and publicly defend the administration’s position. decree which restricted the entry of nationals of several Muslim-majority countries. The travel ban has sparked protests in the United States and legal challenges. A third iteration of the ban was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018.
He was a main supporter of the administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy in 2018, which led to thousands of family separations, and he pushed for a drastic reduction in refugee admissions. The administration repeatedly lowered the annual refugee admissions cap, ultimately setting it at 15,000 for fiscal year 2021, a record low at the time. Under former President Barack Obama, the cap was 110,000 for the 2017 fiscal year.
Miller too recommended penalizing legal immigrants who received public benefits and making it harder for them to obtain citizenship.
During Mr. Trump’s second term, Miller pushed Immigration and Customs Enforcement to take action at least 3,000 immigration-related arrests per day. In May 2025, Miller publicly demanded a dramatic increase in daily arrests, pressuring ICE leaders and expanding enforcement beyond immigrants convicted of serious crimes.
He also propose that the National Guard be deployed to support mass deportations.
Miller’s arrest targets were part of a radical expansion of enforcement in communities, workplaces and immigration courts. Detentions of immigrants with no criminal history has increased significantlyand increased ICE activity has sparked protests across the country.
The longtime Trump adviser also defended the use of a war law – the Extraterrestrial Enemies Act of 1798 — to circumvent due process and expel quickly suspected Venezuelan gang members in El Salvador, where they were held in a maximum security prison known as CECOT. The expulsions sparked a legal battle, and the Supreme Court blocked the government from immediately expelling the Venezuelans without giving them a chance to challenge their expulsion.
As part of the administration’s deportation efforts, Miller supported an aggressive expansion of expulsions to third countries. The administration has deported immigrants to countries where they have no citizenship or family ties, including several African countries.
In May 2025, Miller said the administration was actively considering suspending the constitutional mechanism that allows detainees to challenge their detention in court.
At a March 2026 conference in Miami, Miller argued that military force, rather than just the traditional application of criminal law, was necessary to defeat the cartels.
Miller appeared alongside Mr. Trump in the Oval Office this summer as he decrees signed deny citizenship to some children born in the United States, after the Supreme Court struck his previous decree aimed at ending birthright citizenship.
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