White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller drew sharp condemnation Tuesday over a message he sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers during an interview with Fox News host Will Cain.
Miller asserted that ICE agents have “federal immunity in the conduct of your duties” and declared that anyone who touches or obstructs them is “committing a felony.”
Legal experts and commentators pushed back on social media, stressing that prosecuting federal agents is possible, even if it’s often difficult, as a recent JS report explained.
Other critics called Miller’s overall tone “utterly chilling” and a “greenlight for abuse” that amounted to declaring “open season” for ICE agents “on immigrants AND citizens alike,” and encouraged officers to “go and spread violence and terror.”
Miller’s remarks came amid heightened scrutiny of ICE following the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis.
The anti-immigration hardliner’s full comments were as follows:
“To all ICE officers: You have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties. and anybody who lays a hand on you or tries to stop you or tries to obstruct you is committing a felony. You have immunity to perform your duties, and no one — no city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist — can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties. And the Department of Justice has made clear that if officials cross that line into obstruction, into criminal conspiracy against the United States, or against ICE officers, then they will face justice.”
The Department of Homeland Security later shared footage of Miller’s comments on X, formerly Twitter, describing them as a “REMINDER” to ICE officers. See above.
