This Trump Aide’s Uncle Wants You To Know His Nephew Is A “Hypocrite”

The presidential advisor behind the Trump administration's most extreme immigration policies was called out by his own uncle Monday in a scathing op-ed published by Politico. According to Stephen Miller's uncle, the Trump aide "may have become numb to the resultant human tragedy and blind to the hypocrisy" of his own policy decisions while serving in the White House.

Miller's maternal great-grandfather fled anti-Jewish violence in Belarus by immigrating to the United States in the early 1900s, according to David Glosser, Miller's uncle. Glosser wrote that he "shudder[s] at the thought of what would have become of the Glossers had the same policies Stephen so coolly espouses" existed at the time his family made it to Ellis Island.

"I have watched with dismay and increasing horror as my nephew, who is an educated man and well aware of his heritage, has become the architect of immigration policies that repudiate the very foundation of our family’s life in this country," Glosser wrote.

From the travel ban on visitors from Muslim-majority nations, to the separation of children from their parents after illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, Miller has played a leading role in the Trump administration's efforts to minimize the number of immigrants and refugees entering the country.

Glosser acknowledges that Miller’s ancestors didn’t speak English when they settled in western Pennsylvania. This detail was also pointed out by genealogist Jennifer Mendelsohn, who discovered through the 1910 census that Miller’s great-grandmother couldn’t speak English. Mendelsohn asserted on Twitter last August that Miller’s ancestry was at odds with the Trump administration’s push to favor potential immigrants who do speak English — a policy that hasn’t yet become a reality.

CNN reported on Friday that Miller is now trying to expedite a policy aimed at preventing legal immigrants who’ve received government benefits from becoming citizens. Though Glosser’s account of his grandfather’s immigration journey doesn’t mention government benefits, he acknowledges that it took Miller’s family decades to overcome poverty.

“In the span of some 80 years and five decades, this family emerged from poverty in a hostile country to become a prosperous, educated clan of merchants, scholars, professionals, and, most important, American citizens,” Glosser wrote.

Mendelsohn's genealogical detective skills have also uncovered documents showing that the families of other top Trump aides immigrated to the U.S. a few generations back. Seven of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly's eight great-grandparents were immigrants, for instance.

President Trump's own grandfather immigrated to the United States from Germany as an unaccompanied minor who didn't speak English — a point Miller's uncle includes in his op-ed. The Washington Post notes that Trump's grandfather would likely be prioritized for deportation under the current administration's policies. Meanwhile, Melania Trump's parents recently became citizens thanks to the same type of "chain migration" President Trump and Miller have sought to end.

"These facts are important not only for their grim historical irony but because vulnerable people are being hurt," Glosser wrote. "They are real people, not the ghoulish caricatures portrayed by Trump."

Glosser claims Miller and his boss ignore their own roots in order to insult immigrants and "make them seem less than human." He ends his article by calling on Americans to vote for politicians who take a more empathetic approach to immigration policy. He wrote:

"As free Americans, and the descendants of immigrants and refugees, we have the obligation to exercise our conscience by voting for candidates who will stand up for our highest national values and not succumb to our lowest fears."