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'3,000 people a day': Quotas set by Trump's 'immigration mastermind' may be behind Georgia ICE raid

Published: 11 Sep. 2025, 10:58

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller speaks as U.S. President Donald Trump holds an executive order signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House, Aug. 25, in Washington. [AP/YONHAP]

On May 21, at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters in Washington, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem attended a high-level meeting.

Miller was visibly furious. He berated officials for the low number of arrests of undocumented immigrants.

He then issued a directive to arrest 3,000 people a day. That meant tripling the daily number of arrests from 1,000. The goal was to fulfill U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to deport “millions and millions” people annually, according to a scoop by U.S. outlet Axios, citing meeting participants.

The order stemmed from two factors: tougher border enforcement had driven arrest numbers down, and ICE faced severe manpower and budget shortages. Miller instructed officials to shift operations away from border areas and raids based on suspect lists compiled in advance. Instead, he told them to target workplaces such as Home Depot parking lots, convenience stores and factories where day laborers gather, according to a follow-up report by the Wall Street Journal.

In early June, ICE raided a Home Depot parking lot in Los Angeles, indiscriminately detaining suspected undocumented immigrants. The following month, the agency arrested 361 undocumented workers at a marijuana farm in California. A raid at an LG Energy Solution-Hyundai Motor joint battery plant in Georgia also reflected Miller’s “go to the factories” directive.

Miller is often described as the chief architect of Trump’s immigration agenda. While Noem and White House “border czar” Tom Homan, who oversees immigration enforcement, serve as the operational arms, Miller is the brain — the strategist who has provided the ideological foundation and devised multiple methods to advance hard-line immigration policies.

These policies underpin Trump’s “America First” and “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) doctrine. In Trump’s first term, Miller served as senior policy adviser, overseeing immigration. In Trump’s second term, he returned with even more power as deputy chief of staff for policy and as homeland security adviser, effectively the command center for all policy. The Guardian has called him an “anti-immigrant zealot.”

From left: Deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Vice President JD Vance look on as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press before signing an executive order that aims to end cashless bail, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on Aug. 25. [AFP/YONHAP]

Miller grew up in a wealthy Jewish family in Santa Monica, California. While his family supported the Democrats, he gravitated toward conservative ideology early on. In school, he mocked Hispanic students who did not speak English, criticized their academic performance and denounced education officials for abolishing mandatory recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. He has faced accusations of white nationalism, racism and xenophobia, all of which he denies. Columnist Jason Zengerle wrote in the New York Times that Miller believes the left has wrecked California, and immigration is the direct cause.

After graduating from Duke University with a degree in political science, Miller entered Washington as a press aide for a U.S. congressman. He later worked for Senator Jeff Sessions, a hard-line conservative who became Trump’s first attorney general, before joining Trump’s first presidential campaign in 2016 as a speechwriter. He organized Trump’s instinctive MAGA rhetoric into structured speeches and policies.

Signature policies, such as the U.S.-Mexico border wall, the Muslim travel ban, the “zero tolerance” family separation policy and the public health–based Title 42 entry ban, all originated with Miller.

In Trump’s second term, Miller and Trump have pursued aggressive new measures, including deploying the National Guard to suppress protests and stripping birthright citizenship from U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants.

People take part in a ICE out of Chicago protest in Chicago, Illinois, on Sept. 9. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has launched operations in Chicago to target undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes despite opposition from the Governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, and the Mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson. [EPA/YONHAP]

Miller is considered a radical restrictionist who seeks to curb even legal immigration. In a campaign speech last year, he said, “America is for Americans, and Americans only.” Trump has reportedly joked that Miller is more extreme than he is, once quipping in a meeting “that if it was up to Mr. Miller there would be only 100 million people in this country, and they would all look like Mr. Miller,” according to the New York Times. Trump’s spokesperson Karoline Leavitt denied the report.

Unlike many Trump aides who distanced themselves after the 2020 election loss, Miller never left. He turned down lucrative offers to monetize his ties to Trump. Instead, in 2021, he founded the nonprofit think tank America First Legal, raising $60.44 million over three years to develop policy blueprints and promote MAGA.

Many of Trump’s early executive orders in his second term were the result of Miller’s years of preparation. When unveiling radical initiatives, Miller favored a “flood the zone” strategy — releasing a barrage of policies simultaneously to overwhelm the media and courts’ ability to scrutinize them.

Miller’s longevity stems from his loyalty. While he believes immigration must be slashed across the board, he ultimately defers to Trump — even when Trump supports exceptions, such as H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY PARK HYUN-YOUNG [[email protected]]