Stephen Miller is trending again. And you know why. He said something cruel and racist, along with a reckless and stupid idea, all to fight brown people.

It certainly sounds to us like there were elements in the Trump administration that effectively wanted to invade Mexico. Trump asked about sending American missiles into drug labs and denying that they were our missiles (as if those things cannot be tracked.) Meanwhile, upon hearing that there was a “caravan” of defenseless refugees running from worn-torn, gang-ridden Central America, Stephen Miller wanted to send 250,000 troops to “defend our border.”

There is a fundamental and essential difference between what we call “illegal immigrants” versus refugees. International law establishes that the richer, more stable, first-world countries must give a refugee a hearing to hear the merits of their claim to danger and why they need safety in a stable country. If the person establishes that they are in danger or oppressed in their home country, the country must grant them protection by taking them in with a work visa until the threat goes away and the refugee must return to his or her country or the refugee applies for citizenship.

Most refugees in this caravan simply presented themselves to American officials/ Some just dropped off children hoping they’d be safer. They were not “invading” the U.S. Stephen Miller (and Trump) simply wanted a show of force, greater than any number we ever sent to Afghanistan or Iraq to terrify people who consider crossing.

Here is Esper, from Business Insider:

“He’s behind me, and this voice just starts talking about ‘caravans are coming, and we need to get troops to the border, and we need a quarter of a million troops, and I think he’s joking,” Esper told CBS’ Norah O’Donnell. “And then I turn around and look at him, at these deadpan eyes, and clearly, he is not joking.”

Esper says he countered Miller by stating that the Department of Homeland Security could handle any influxes of migrants. But Miller insisted on a major troop presence.

Esper told Miller he didn’t have 250,000 troops to send on some ridiculous mission. Esper then shared the story with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley. Esper asked Milley to look into whether this was something they were seriously considering.

Milley comes back days later, and the door opens up, and he’s waving a document in his hands, and says something like, ‘Secretary you’re not going to believe this,'” Esper said.

“And that’s when he explains to me that yes, they were working, that we had developed a plan, an initial concept of how this might happen, and I was just flabbergasted that not only was the idea proposed, but people in my department were working on it.”

Notice the Trump administration going around its own officials to more “sympathetic” planners in DoD, not telling the Secretary?

Miller and Trump wanted to near declare war with Mexico. Putting that many troops in that kind of proximity to people with guns on the other side of the border (Mexican officials) with some American troops agreeing that they were in a state of war and would interpret a group crossing illegally as an invasion and start shooting Mexican citizens which would move the Mexican government to do something in response.

And that might well have been what Miller and Trump wanted, a firewall.

Of course, Miller thinks it’s terrible that we’re feeding babies that are housed in our custody. I guess he believes letting them starve or separating them and sending them back to Mexico is the solution. Miller is the most openly racist person to serve at that level in our country in a generation or two:

"We must protect babies so long as they're white, homegrown ones!"

– Stephen Miller: Profession Baby Eater. pic.twitter.com/fmqTcIG4CN

— 💀ProChoiceViking💀 (@DeathMetalV) May 12, 2022

Unbelievable and yet totally believable.

WATCH:

"We had developed a plan, initial concept of how [sending 250,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border] might happen. And I was just flabbergasted," former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper tells @NorahODonnell.

Mark Esper speaks with 60 Minutes, Sunday. https://t.co/v7prd6Td2D pic.twitter.com/DWXDJ5y2oH

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) May 5, 2022

****

[email protected], @JasonMiciak, with Nicole Hickman