Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels, took a shot Sunday at White House senior adviser Stephen Miller for his role in shaping the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policy that allows the parents of illegal immigrants to be separated from their children born in the U.S.
“Stephen Miller: Congrats, the separation policy that you sold to your boss Mr. Trump will result in images that will crater you both. We will ensure you will never escape them. In your fascist zeal, you forgot that mothers are mothers first, regardless of their politics,” Avenatti tweeted.
Stephen Miller: Congrats, the separation policy that you sold to your boss Mr. Trump will result in images that will crater you both. We will ensure you will never escape them. In your fascist zeal, you forgot that mothers are mothers first, regardless of their politics. #Basta
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) June 17, 2018
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced last month that the Justice Department would no longer overlook first-time illegal entrants. Instead, anyone apprehended at the Southwestern border would be referred to the Department of Justice for prosecution and judges were ordered to take up additional cases and not mark them as unresolved. The month-old zero tolerance policy was an attempt to offset spiking apprehension numbers by prosecuting all illegal entrants, including the parents or guardians who arrived at the border with underage children.
[Related: Jeff Sessions uses Bible to defend zero-tolerance border policy to church leaders]
Avenatti, who is representing Daniels in her legal fight against the president related to an alleged affair more than a decade ago, struck a similar tone to Democratic nemeses of President Trump in Congress. They have espoused a narrow standpoint in expressing their opposition to the policy, arguing that it tears children apart from their parents.
“If anyone knows of a parent that has had their child taken from them at the border and not returned, please have them contact me as I am entering this fight. This outrageous conduct must be brought to an immediate end,” Avenatti said in a separate tweet Sunday.
Miller, who himself is an immigration hard-liner, signaled last week that the White House supports Republican efforts to pass two separate immigration bills next week. Following a Wednesday meeting with House Republicans, Miller told reporters that “both the bills are being finalized right now, but we strongly support what they’re doing.”
Trump has stated that he will not sign any bill that does not contain his four immigration “pillars”: securing the border through the construction of a wall, reduce chain migration, end the visa lottery system, and provide a pathway to citizenship for so-called Dreamers.
