The wife of Steven Miller, a senior advisor for policy to President Donald Trump, Katie Miller, visited a child detention center on the US-Mexico border in order ‘to become more compassionate’ but claims that the visit ‘didn’t work’.
Ms. Miller who is now a spokeswoman for Vice President Mike Pence, was interviewed byJacob Soboroff, a correspondent for NBC News who has written a book entitled Separated, that details the Trump administration’s ‘zero tolerance’ family-separation policy earlier in the term.
Between 2017 and 2019, Miller worked as a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, an agency that was overseeing the separation of children from their parents after crossing into the U.S.
Katie Miller, a former spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security and wife of Trump policy advisor Steven Miller was sent to children detention center on the U.S. border during separation policy
The US began separating children from their parents in May 2018 as part of a ‘zero tolerance’ policy toward migrants who illegally cross the border
Miller told Soboroff that she was sent to one of the child migrant detention centers for herself in an effort to establish some empathy for the immigrants that were crossing the border.
‘My family and colleagues told me that when I have kids I’ll think about the separations differently. But I don’t think so … DHS sent me to the border to see the separations for myself — to try to make me more compassionate — but it didn’t work,’ she is reported to have said.
Soboroff interaction with Miller was recounted on NBC’s Rachel Maddow Show as she read an except from the book.
Soboroff is said to have responded with incredulity to Miller’s statement.
The aim of sending Miller to a center was to generate some compassion for migrants
In a book written by NBC journalist Jacob Soboroff, Miller claims that she did not feel compassion and that the trip to the centers ‘didn’t work’
”It didn’t work? I will never forget what I saw. Seriously. Are you a white nationalist?’ I asked, exasperated,’ Soboroff detailed.
Miller replied: ‘No, but I believe if you come to America you should assimilate. Why do we need to have ‘Little Havana’?
The family-separation policy which ran between 2017 and 2019 saw around 4,000 migrant children being separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border.
Many of the detention facilities they were placed in were also deemed to be unsanitary.
Soboroff was among the first journalists to expose the reality after seeing firsthand the living conditions of the children in custody.
‘That was Katie Miller in the throes of the national uproar over this government prying kids out of their parents’ arms,’ Maddow said speaking about Miller’s comments.
The DHS separated families who sought asylum in U.S. by crossing border illegally. Pictured, children inside a United States Border Patrol Processing Center, in McAllen, Texas
Migrant teens are pictured held inside the Tornillo, Texas detention camp inside the facility. The temporary shelter was supposed to hold 360 but ended up holding thousands
The images sparked fury, questions of morality and concern from Republicans about a negative impact on their party’s image.
The photos showed children being held in unhygienic conditions sparking international condemnation.
At the time, Ms Miller defended insisting ‘the welfare of children in our custody is paramount.’
President Donald Trump eventually signed an executive order in June 2018 ending the process of separating children from families
The effects may be long-lasting. In September a report by the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general detailed how children who had been detained were suffering acute psychological trauma.
Katie Miller, is now the vice president Mike Pence’s press secretary. She is pictured here attending the president’s first re-election campaign rally in several months in the midst of the coronavirus disease outbreak, at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma in June
‘According to program directors and mental health clinicians, separated children exhibited more fear, feelings of abandonment, and post-traumatic stress than did children who were not separated,’ the report said, adding that some children ‘expressed acute grief that caused them to cry inconsolably.’
Katie Miller married Trump aide, Stephen Miller in February and the couple are soon expecting their first child.
Her current role is as Vice President Pence’s spokeswoman and is involved in communications regarding the White House’s coronavirus task force.