Stephen Miller Is Still Pursuing His Immigration Agenda, but More Quietly

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Now, Mr. Miller, 40, one of the most influential presidential advisers in recent memory and an unabashed champion of Mr. Trump’s hard-line immigrant crackdown, is at a crossroads. He faces questions about how aggressively he can continue to drive the deportation campaign, and how much appetite his party and the country have for tactics that proved successful in helping to boost arrests of immigrants but reignited a polarizing debate over what it means to be American.

The administration has toned down its immigration strategy. Federal agents have drawn down from the streets of major cities, and Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary who had become the face of the policy, is out. Mr. Miller even pulled back his public appearances for a time.

But there is little sense inside the administration that Mr. Miller has lost his standing with Mr. Trump.

Far from acknowledging defeat, Mr. Miller appears to have simply adjusted his strategy in an effort to minimize political fallout. He has remained steadfast in his view that the administration should act to reverse an openness to migration that he has called “the single largest experiment on a society, on a civilization, that has ever been conducted in human history.”

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Mr. Miller, who holds the dual titles of deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser, continues to preside over regular calls with national security and immigration officials. He is pushing for new ways to squeeze the lives of undocumented immigrants and those with legal protections, such as making it harder to get public housing or other benefits, officials said. He has targeted those with refugee status, particularly Somalis, a group he has long derided.

He is also putting the finishing touches on a rule to block green cards for immigrants who might need public assistance, according to White House officials. The policy faced legal pushback during Mr. Trump’s first term and was lifted under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Mr. Miller is focused on crafting the rule to survive in court.

He has pushed Republicans in Congress to resist ICE reforms backed by Democrats, while his team in the White House has helped carry out Mr. Trump’s directive to deploy ICE agents to airports. And Mr. Miller is focused on ramping up deportations of noncitizens to faraway countries, with the hopes of encouraging immigrants still in the United States to leave voluntarily.

In addition to his efforts on the federal level, Mr. Miller has worked with politicians in various Republican states to pass anti-immigrant laws. He raised with Texas lawmakers last month the idea of ending public education funding for undocumented children.

White House officials in recent weeks have said that Mr. Miller grew frustrated with Ms. Noem and the attention-grabbing approach to immigration operations endorsed by her and some of her top lieutenants. But there is little to no evidence that Mr. Miller pushed back against the aggressive tactics of agents that prompted bipartisan criticism.

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Mr. Miller has blamed many of the country’s problems on a landmark 1965 law that paved the way for more Hispanic and Asian immigrants, a shift from primarily allowing in Europeans.

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Rather than Mr. Miller seeing his power recede, he has moved to apply it in other ways, seeking policies that would pressure undocumented immigrants to leave on their own.

On his recent calls with immigration officials, for example, Mr. Miller has asked for information on how immigrants use credit cards, potentially as part of an effort to crack down on their ability to open accounts and spend money, according to officials with knowledge of the discussions.

Mr. Miller has also pursued changes affecting legal migrants, including refugees. He has continued to push ICE to work with the Justice Department to launch investigations into immigrants who illegally obtain public benefits. And he speaks frequently with Mr. Homan, who he has worked with to develop deportation strategies.

Mr. Miller’s influence has also extended beyond Washington.

In Tennessee, Republican state lawmakers have advanced a legislative package crafted in consultation with Mr. Miller that would harden immigration enforcement. It would require state or local officials to report people who receive services at hospitals, social service agencies and some public schools despite being in the country illegally. Officials who fail to report migrants improperly receiving benefits could face fines or even prison time.

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