After a chaotic and deadly lame duck period, former President Donald Trump went back to Florida on Wednesday and President Joe Biden was inaugurated as President of the United States.
President Biden faces the unenviable task of beginning to undo the work of the Trump administration, particularly in regards to immigration.
From the very beginning of his 2016 campaign, Trump vilified undocumented immigrants as inherently violent and a threat to American security. Once inaugurated, Trump ordered the Justice Department to treat all illegal border crossings as criminal—not civil—offenses, a deviation from the Obama-era policy of treating these first-time crossings as civil offenses.
The decision resulted in the overcrowding of border facilities and the stratospheric expansion of family separations.
This was but one of the Trump administration's efforts to suppress immigration, joined by sweeping travel bans, asylum restrictions, and the construction of a wall at the southern border.
As part of his effort to undo these policies, President Biden will send an ambitious immigration reform bill to Congress which will provide an eight year path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants currently in the United States.
At his inauguration, Biden said:
"Disagreement must not lead to disunion. And I pledge this to you: I will be a president for all Americans. All Americans. And I promise you I will fight as hard for those who did not support me as for those who did."
Former Trump advisor and known white supremacist Stephen Miller—one of the minds behind Trump's most atrocious immigration policies—attempted to slam Biden's vow to be a President for all Americans.
Today, @POTUS pledged to be a president for all Americans. It’s unclear how all Americans are served by opening tra… https://t.co/xWjTs3pt1N— Stephen Miller (@Stephen Miller) 1611174528.0
Miller claimed that Biden couldn't be a President for all Americans while implementing expanded immigration policies, despite the United States' centuries-old claim to be a haven for all immigrants.
Miller's tweet was immediately decried by Twitter, with many reminding Miller of the atrocities he gleefully helped implement.
You helped incite a terror attack on Congress and ordered the stealing of babies from their parents. https://t.co/Rrtdib0wxO— Mehdi Hasan (@Mehdi Hasan) 1611181718.0
The avowed white supremacist who wrote the policy to separate infants from their mothers, ignore ICE's rampant sexu… https://t.co/gJO4Ubhrvr— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@Qasim Rashid, Esq.) 1611178126.0
this you? https://t.co/8z32wXCohN https://t.co/u9XPhiQKAE https://t.co/b3KEjZFiAO— hannah gais (@hannah gais) 1611177838.0
Under this man's watch, neither Saudi trainees nor US military social media were reviewed for terrorist ties, and p… https://t.co/KAoVbCOMzN— Dr. emptywheel (@Dr. emptywheel) 1611177173.0
This deserves nothing but derision and contempt. He interpreted a popular vote loss and an EC fluke win as a mandat… https://t.co/4PrESMecXr— Greg Sargent (@Greg Sargent) 1611176658.0
With Miller no longer tainting the White House, people proceeded to mock him.
Sure this tweet is bad, but to be fair I bet it reads better in the original German https://t.co/MGzQx27pCn— Jay Willis (@Jay Willis) 1611178245.0
strongly resisting the urge to spend the remainder of my career cyberbullying Stephen Miller… https://t.co/5cfdqJ8lRG— Jared Holt (@Jared Holt) 1611175844.0
Stuff Stephen Miller Into A Locker Challenge https://t.co/tzbPKhWDWM— Phil Nobile Jr. (@Phil Nobile Jr.) 1611181806.0
It's unclear what Miller's next career move will be, but it's safe to say most hope he never reaches a position of power or influence again.