Stephen Miller, Donald Trump's deputy chief of staff and chief immigration architect, has long championed the end of birthright citizenship. His latest outburst followed the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in Trump v. Barbara, which upheld the constitutionality of birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment. Miller called the ruling 'one of the most destructive and outrageous decisions in the long history of the Supreme Court,' arguing that 'American citizenship is not the birthright of the world.'
Miller's 'blood' ideology echoes discredited theories
Miller's worldview is rooted in the concept of 'blood' as the basis for citizenship, a notion that Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, described as 'odious.' In his opinion, Roberts explicitly rejected the idea that bloodline should determine citizenship, referencing the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857, in which Chief Justice Roger B. Taney argued that Black people had 'no rights which the white man was bound to respect.' Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in her concurrence, noted the irony that the government's position 'seeks to make bloodline the marker of birthright,' a core tenet of Dred Scott that the 14th Amendment was designed to repudiate.
Miller has repeatedly invoked the great replacement theory, stating, 'If you import the Third World, you become the Third World.' This language parallels Hitler's concept of 'blood poisoning' (Blutvergiftung) in Mein Kampf, where he wrote that 'all the great civilizations of the past decayed because the originally creative race died out, as a result of poisoning of the blood.' Miller's policies, including aggressive mass deportations and the 'Save Act' requiring proof of citizenship to vote, reflect this genetic-based view of national identity.
Facts contradict Miller's claims about immigrants
In a Fox News interview, Miller argued that immigrants from 'third world nations' could not have 'invented the wheel let alone modern technology, let alone medicine, let alone air travel.' Yet historical and statistical evidence directly refutes these assertions. The wheel was likely invented in Mesopotamia around 4200-4000 BC, a region Miller might call 'Third World' but is recognized as the cradle of civilization.
According to data, immigrants have founded 59% of privately held startups in the U.S., 66% of artificial intelligence firms, and account for 50% of PhDs in science and engineering. Nearly 30% of practicing physicians are immigrants, and 36% of American Nobel Prize winners in chemistry, medicine, and physics are foreign-born. Immigrants also contributed to aviation: Igor Sikorsky invented the helicopter, Giuseppe Mario Bellanca designed enclosed cabin aircraft, and Michael Stroukoff pioneered cargo transport. The son of an immigrant, William Boeing, revolutionized airplane manufacturing.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration's own policies have driven away scientific talent. More than 10,000 scientists and medical researchers with PhDs have left federal government roles, and about 25,000 additional technical personnel were fired or displaced in Trump's first year alone. Over 7,800 research grants have been terminated or frozen.
Irony of Trump family immigration history
Miller's policies, if applied retroactively, could have threatened the Trump family itself. Donald Trump's paternal grandparents, Frederick and Elizabeth Christ Trump, were German immigrants. Elizabeth was not a naturalized citizen at the time of her children's births, but her husband Frederick was. Trump's mother, Mary MacLeod, was a Scottish immigrant who was not naturalized when her first child, Maryanne, was born; Maryanne derived citizenship from her father, Fred Trump.
Two of Trump's wives—Ivana (Czech) and Melania (Slovenian)—were immigrants. Ivana did not become a U.S. citizen until four years after the birth of her last child. Melania faced questions about working in the U.S. before receiving legal permission, with an Associated Press investigation finding she was paid $20,056 for 10 modeling jobs in the seven weeks before she had authorization.
In the first eight months of 2025, ICE apprehended 4,843 spouses of U.S. citizens and deported more than 2,000. ICE also arrested parents of approximately 14,450 U.S.-born children, leading to the deportation of parents of over 7,000 children. Miller's ideology, had it been in effect a century ago, might have ended the American story of the Trumps.
