Caitlin Dickerson

And it could be very simple, you know, the omission of a middle name or an explanation of why you left the country on the day that you did or why you came.

You know, did you put on one document that you came for work and another that you came to visit family when both were true?

So that is a really powerful pretense or could be a really powerful pretense for, again, clawing legal status back from a lot of people by claiming fraud.

You know, when you're doing an audit on someone's entire life, you can find something.

And even the most upstanding immigrants will tell you there's something on a document that could be used against them.

And so it's

It really isn't just an entree to focusing on the people, whether it's Democratic politicians or immigrants that the administration wants to go after.

Two-prong answer.

So there are some people within the Trump administration, and I would say Stephen Miller is their leader, who want a return to not just a majority white country, which of course we've always been, but one where white American culture is dominant, that we're not so much viewed as a diverse nation of immigrants where different languages and different foods are celebrated, but one that is more purely a white supremacist country.

Then you have people within the administration and Trump, I would consider to be the highest ranking, of course, among them, who've latched onto the subject of immigration because it gives him power.

So when Stephen Miller started working for Donald Trump in his first presidential candidacy, he was a speechwriter that people really weren't sure about until rallies started and until the president started to see the incredibly powerful reaction that he was getting every time he talked about immigration.

And this led to Miller being empowered throughout that campaign all the way up until Trump's first election, which, remember, stunned Trump and his inner circle.

People did not expect him to win.

And so this narrative solidified within that first Trump White House that Miller was responsible for Trump's success.

I think everything that I've reported suggests that since then, Trump has held on to that commitment to immigration and that commitment to Miller, not because he is personally passionate about the issue.

And I would say the same is probably true for people like Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi.

You know, these are people who want to support the president and his consolidation of power.

and are latching on to immigration because it seems to be working.

I mean, they believe that that's why Trump has been so successful as a politician.

So really, we're going to have to look at the midterms and the next presidential election to see how much that holds.