Filed in the “Oh, Yeah, I Can Totally See That Happening” drawer: Trump administration advisor Stephen Miller once suggested using Predator drones to bomb boats carrying unarmed migrants, saying the people would not be covered by the Constitution because they would be in international waters, according to an upcoming book by Miles Taylor, the former Homeland Security Chief of Staff who previously wrote a tell-all under the pen name “Anonymous.”
According to an advance copy read by Rolling Stone, Miller told Taylor the plan in April 2018, saying that was Miller’s solution to a migrant boat that was headed to the US. Contemporaneous reports show boats loaded with more than 1,300 Haitian and Caribbean refugees were intercepted at sea by the US Coast Guard over the previous six months. When contacted by Rolling Stone, a representative of Miller denied the account.
In his book, Taylor says Miller sought the support of then-US Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Paul Zukunft, who doesn’t remember having such a conversation with Miller about that. The now-retired and always-blunt Zukunft told Rolling Stone: “I vividly recall having a lengthy conversation with Stephen Miller regarding Southwest border security in 2018. My point was that the US is not exerting enough influence in the form of foreign aid in the tri-border region of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador that have been key source nations for illegal migration. In effect, get at the root cause of illegal migration at the source rather than a goal line defense at the border. And the preponderance of these migrants traverse on foot. But to use deadly force to thwart maritime migration would be preposterous and the antithesis of our Nation’s vanguard for advancing human rights.”