WashingtonA white supremacist as a policy adviser, a “border czar” to regulate the entry of migrants to the wall, and a pro-Israel congresswoman critical of the UN as the US ambassador to the body. Donald Trump’s incoming administration is beginning to take shape under a trickle of confirmed names that portend a much more conservative and extremist presidency. Trump is keeping his word and surrounding himself with loyal figures, aligned with his vision, who will execute whatever he orders.
The new names that will join the new Trump administration are: Stephen Miller, Thomas D. Homan and Elise Stefanik. Miller will be a policy adviser, a role he had already held informally all along. The idea of ”mass deportation” with which Trump has filled his mouth throughout the campaign would have been Miller’s credit. During the Republican’s first presidency, he was already in the White House as an immigration policy adviser and was a central figure for many of his measures, such as separating migrant families at the border.
In November 2019, it was discovered that Miller had been pressuring the website Breitbart to publish articles promoting white supremacism. Despite the scandal, Miller did not fall from grace then and will now return to the White House. This Monday, vice president-elect JD Vance congratulated Miller, whom he considers a “fantastic” signing.
The artist of separating migrant families
Trump has chosen another loyal soldier from his old government to be his “border czar”, as he has announced. The return of Thomas D. Homan to manage the border confirms Trump’s willingness to follow through on his promises about the wall and deportations. Under the Trump administration, Homan was one of the architects of the policy that separated migrant families at the border. More than 5,500 children were separated from their parents at the border with Mexico under its “Zero Tolerance” policy.
“Thomas Homan will be in charge of all deportations of illegal aliens back to their country of origin,” wrote Trump on his Truth Social profile, who believes that “there is no one better to monitor and control the our borders”.
Homan is a former Border Patrol agent and had served under six presidencies. During Obama’s tenure he was the associate executive director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and it was during that time that ICE carried out a record number of deportations.
Hours before Trump announced the signing, Homan explained to the Fox network what the mass deportations promised by the Republican would be like and assured that it would be a “well-directed and planned operation, carried out by the men of ICE”. Three weeks before the election, Tim Doherty, one of the volunteers who works with migrants on the Arizona border, was explaining the case of a man in Tucson who had reported his neighbor, who was a migrant, to the police. for not having the papers in order. “These types of situations will increase with Trump coming to power, I have no doubt,” explained Doherty. Humanitarian organizations that help migrants along the border with Mexico were already preparing for a tightening of migration policies if Trump won or Kamala Harris won.
Loyalty Awards
The promotion of Elise Stefanik as US ambassador to the UN is another example of how Trump rewards loyalty. The congresswoman from New York stopped being a moderate within the Republican Party to become one of Trump’s biggest supporters. He was one of the people who supported his return before the tycoon himself decided to stand again as a candidate for this year’s elections. Although he won Trump’s approval when he ousted Harvard University Chancellor Claudine Gay over pro-Palestinian campus protests.
Stefanik, who from 2021 chairs the Republican Conference of the House of Representatives, is part of the Committee on Education and Labor that has brought to account many of the chancellors of the universities where last spring there were camps against the war of Gaza. Apart from Gay, the body has also led to the resignation of the chancellor of the University of Pennsylvania and that of Columbia, who just submitted her resignation at the beginning of the university year.
Stefanik’s strong pro-Israel profile is a sign of Trump’s commitment to Israel and his willingness to close ranks with Tel-Aviv in the face of an international community increasingly critical of the Gaza massacre. However, it will not mean a big change compared to the role that the US has played in the UN on the Palestinian conflict. Joe Biden’s administration has been one of the most pro-Israeli and is best remembered for vetoing a resolution for a cease-fire in Gaza three times and preventing Palestine from becoming a full member of the UN.
