The past year has been draining and depressing. America's standing as the leader of the free world has evaporated in what feels like the blink of an eye, all while tanking the economy with illegal tariffs and policies, and escalating its war on people of color. And it seems to have no end in sight. As of January 5, 2026, thirty-two people have died in ICE custody.

According to an article in The Guardian, "Some of those who died in detention had arrived in the US recently, seeking asylum. Others had arrived years ago, some as young children. Some had been apprehended on criminal charges or had served time for convictions; others had been picked up in the administration’s indiscriminate ICE raids. They died of seizure and heart failure, stroke, respiratory failure, tuberculosis, or suicide. Some died at ICE detention centers and field offices, others after they had been transferred to hospitals, but were still under ICE custody. In some cases, their families and lawyers have alleged that they died of neglect after repeatedly trying and failing to get medical care."

The media has largely overlooked these deaths in ICE custody, only giving significant attention after two white citizens died under similar circumstances. This is not to minimize the tragic deaths of Renee Nicole Goode and Alex Pretti, but to point out the selective public awareness. Technological advancements, such as the widespread use of cell phones, now make it easier to record and broadcast government transgressions. The administration’s direction on immigration policy, the lovechild of Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy, is blatantly racist. Miller has been called “a Nazi, a neo-Nazi, a white supremacist, a kapo, and Lord Voldemort.” 

The idea of someone with Miller's background embracing these views can seem paradoxical. Yet, in today's complex social climate, such contrasts exist.

Miller's views on non-whites have been the subject of extensive discussion. According to Noah Berlatsky, who wrote a well-researched article on Miller, "Miller’s own family came to the United States fleeing pogroms in Belarus at the beginning of the 20th century. His uncle, David S. Glosser, says he 'shudder[s] at the thought' of what would have become of Miller’s ancestors if they had been subjected to the 'policies Stephen so cooly espouses—the travel ban, the radical decrease in refugees, the separation of children from their parents, and even talk of limiting citizenship for legal immigrants.'"

Miller himself has no such qualms, though. On the contrary, Miller is, as former ABC anchor Terry Moran put it, “a world-class hater.” Jean Guerrero, who wrote the book Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, And The White Nationalist Agenda, points out that Miller grew up in California in the 1990s at a time of increasing anti-immigrant sentiment. This was a period of escalating attacks on bilingual education and on social services for immigrants.

Most Jewish people—around 70% according to polls over the years—tend to lean left and vote for Democrats. There are exceptions though, and Miller is one. He gobbled up racist and xenophobic narratives in high school, listening to right-wing radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Larry Elder. He called into the latter’s show, impressed him, and began to be featured as a regular guest. That got Miller into right-wing networks, and introduced him to David Horowitz—an influential far-right and racist Jewish conservative.

Miller went on to be a tireless advocate for white nationalism and immigrant hatred. The Southern Poverty Law Center investigated leaked emails between Miller and the far-right website Breitbart in which Miller encouraged Breitbart to run pieces from white nationalist websites like VDare and American Renaissance. The Southern Poverty Law Center “was unable to find any examples of Miller writing sympathetically or even in neutral tones about any person who is nonwhite or foreign-born.”

Miller was (and still is) especially obsessed with Jean Raspail’s paranoid anti-immigrant hate novel The Camp of the Saints. Raspail is one of the most influential advocates of the Great Replacement theory—the idea that shadowy forces are encouraging immigration so that immigrants can outvote, overwhelm, and conquer the U.S. and Western countries.

In a recent White House briefing, Miller shouted that mainstream media’s (supposed) sympathy for immigrants is an example of the “cancerous, communist, woke culture that is destroying this country.” In his obsessive effort to deport immigrants—especially brown and Black immigrants—he’s put in place impossible quotas for ICE enforcement and is pushing agents to arrest people seeking work in Home Depot parking lots and on farms. To bolster Miller’s campaign of terror, Trump has illegally seized control of the California National Guard and is threatening more raids in other blue states that he claims are insufficiently anti-immigrant."

The country now faces a White House whose Deputy Chief of Staff has become a prominent voice in shaping policy affecting people of color. And his policy is "You are not welcome here. Resist, and you can be judged, juried, and executed at will. Just look at what we’re doing to our own people."

Now, what are we as a country going to do about it? I fear that sooner, rather than later, we won't be able to do anything at all about it if this regime continues to sow fear and hatred in the citizenry, and quickly and quietly erodes our Constitutional rights.