Rachel Maddow had a stunning segment last night that opened a window into how Trump administration officials thought about immigration detention policy, including an enlightening quote from Katie "Mrs. Stephen" Miller:
Using Jacob Soboroff's new book, "Separated," as the source, Maddow talked about how the architects and enforcers of the immigration detention policy are still employed by the federal government, and by the Trump administration.
"They are the people most highly visible and actively directing the mismanagement of the response to the coronavirus epidemic which has killed 131,000 Americans. Take, for example, the Health and Human Services secretary. Scott Lloyd's boss, his job was to take care of all the kids, the ones sleeping on the floor under aluminum blankets.
"Now he is in charge of leading the public health response to the coronavirus. And how about Katie Miller? She was a vocal, unwavering defender of what we were doing taking the kids away from their parents. Here is how he recalls a conversation with her in his new book. Previously unreported but in Jacob's new book. Katie Miller told Jacob, quote, 'My family and colleagues told me that when I have kids I will think about the separations differently. I don't think so. Homeland Security sent me to the border to see the separations myself to try to make me more compassionate, but it didn't work.'
"Jacob responds, 'It didn't work? I will never forget what I saw. Seriously. Are you a white nationalist?' he asked, exasperated.
"No, but I believe if you come to America, you should assimilate, why do we need to have, like, Little Havana?' "
"That was Katie Miller in the throes of the national uproar over this government prying kids out of their parents arms. Today, she has a new job. Today, she is the press secretary for the vice president of the United States. And in charge of all communications on coronavirus for the federal coronavirus task force.
"As the nation continues to blunder murderously through the worst coronavirus epidemic on earth, tens of thousands of cases a day, it's helpful to remember who was at the wheel here, and where was the last business crisis they got their training."
She says Soboroff's book is not just a good book, not just a telling of what she calls "the dark time, but an instruction manual to inform us."
