Assholes

"When we do what they did it's good because we are good" is a too common view from professionals in left-leaning circles.

Rice famously cleansed her West Wing office with burning sage after Biden’s team moved in in the weeks following the January 6 Capitol riot. The office’s previous occupant was Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s controversial immigration czar behind four years of wildly xenophobic policies like the ill-fated Muslim ban and separating migrant parents from their children at the border. But migrant advocates might have hoped for a more significant improvement on the Trump White House: “She was one of the most anti-immigrant folks in the administration,” said immigrant rights activist Erika Andiola of Rice.

The criticism isn’t unfounded. Rather than undo Miller’s work, Rice has assiduously doubled down on some of Trump’s most impactful anti-immigrant policies, most notably the administration’s support for Title 42—the shambolic policy Donald Trump used to expel migrants as public health threats during the pandemic.