Mexicans Wary Over Stephen Miller’s Plans For Them

President Donald Trump’s choice of Stephen Miller as his new chief of staff is alarming Mexico — a country with a lot to lose after managing to largely assuage Trump for the past two years.

Government officials, business leaders and other power players in America’s southern neighbor worry that the hardliner’s elevation means tensions between Washington and Mexico City are likely to spike — especially if, as many expect, Miller demands Mexico do even more to crack down on migration and drug cartels. Some worry Miller will push Trump to authorize direct U.S. military action on Mexican soil.

“No one is pleased, to say the least,” said John Feeley, a former senior U.S. diplomat who specialized in Latin America and who has been in touch with former high-ranking Mexican officials about the Miller promotion.

The Mexican media outlet Excelsior published a withering opinion piece on Tuesday headlined: “A danger to Mexico named Stephen Miller.”

Mexican government officials are being careful about their public comments on the U.S. political scene. When asked this week about the implications of Miller’s new position, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said, “There has been nothing to alert us that anything is changing.”

Sheinbaum has sidestepped much of the ire Trump has targeted at other world leaders by cooperating with him on certain fronts, including deploying Mexican troops to stem the flow of migrants, enhancing security measures and engaging in trade talks. Sheinbaum has sought to limit Trump’s imposition of tariffs and pushed for security coordination in a bid to avoid unilateral U.S. action against her country.

Trump has complimented Sheinbaum on multiple occasions, and while there is friction, the relationship has been more stable than many U.S. and Mexican officials initially expected.

A person familiar with Mexican officials' thinking said they are now "watching for any change in tone" from the White House while being cautious about their public reactions because they want to maintain "security cooperation grounded in mutual trust and respect for sovereignty.”

Like others, the person was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic candidly.

One indication of a change in tone came Thursday, when Trump posted on social media that "huge" caravans of migrants were crossing Mexico headed for the U.S. border. "MEXICO MUST STOP THEM, NOW, and if they do not do so, the Tariffs on Mexico will be IMMEDIATELY DOUBLED," he wrote.

The Mexican Embassy in Washington declined to provide comment for this story.

Former U.S. officials and others in touch with power players in both capitals say concern is widespread. One business executive in Mexico City described Miller as being in the “anti-Mexico camp” of the Trump administration.

The sentiment has been picked up across Mexican media. A writer in the Mexican publication El Financiero warned Monday that Miller has boosted “the radicalization of negotiations with Mexico,” and compared Miller’s tactics to those of Nazi-era “brownshirts.”

Miller is known as a lead architect and proponent of Trump’s so-called Donroe Doctrine, which aims to assert U.S. power throughout the Western Hemisphere in ways that curb migration, reduce the power of drug cartels and tilt the economic sphere to Washington’s benefit.

Such demands put Mexico in an awkward spot. Many Mexican officials agree with the need to battle the cartels and reduce migration flows, both of which affect the resources and security of Mexicans as well as Americans. But they bristle at what feels like U.S. bullying and don’t want to be seen compromising Mexicos’ sovereignty.

Until now, Miller had served as Homeland Security adviser and deputy chief of staff. He’s an immigration hardliner who oversaw the closure of the U.S. southern border and Trump’s mass deportation efforts.

He has also been an avid backer of U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats and pushed for the U.S. categorization of many cartels as foreign terrorist groups.

Taylor Rogers, a spokesperson for the White House, credited Miller for helping Trump achieve “historic results” in battling cartels and illegal migration.

“President Trump has been clear that it is unacceptable for foreign terrorist organizations to control vast territories across Mexico, particularly along the U.S. border,” Rogers added.

Miller’s new role means he will have more say across government agencies and work even more closely with Trump. But a Trump administration official familiar with how Miller operates argued that his role as chief of staff is unlikely to make a “huge” difference in how Trump treats Mexico because Miller has always been tough on the topic and has informed Trump’s thinking.

At times, however, the president has appeared less harsh on migrants than Miller. In an interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes that aired Sunday, Trump said his deportation policies might have been “too tough,” damaging Republicans in the midterm elections.

That said, Trump has a history of sending mixed messages. And his choice of Miller as chief of staff is seen by many in Mexico and the U.S. as a signal that Trump will double down on draconian policies and defy Democrats whenever possible.

The Trump administration official also said that Miller has an ability to push others in the administration to take harder stances than they otherwise would have.

The overall results of the midterms offer Mexicans some evidence that the U.S. political climate is changing and that Democrats’ coming control of both chambers of Congress will make Miller and Trump think twice about sparking new fights with Mexico.

“It will be interesting to see how those competing forces interact,” the business executive said. Of particular interest to the Mexican business community is whether Democrats can pressure Trump to walk back some of his tariffs.

One midterm outcome that had relieved many Mexican officials was the defeat of Texas’ Republican governor, Greg Abbott, according to two people familiar with the thinking in Mexican political circles.

Abbott had imposed additional screening on trucks crossing the border, a step other governors in states bordering Mexico had not taken, and placed additional barriers in waters between Texas and Mexico. Mexican officials hope that Democratic Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa will take a softer approach to the relationship than Abbott, who also regularly lambasted Mexican counterparts.

Presidents tend to have a freer hand on foreign policy than domestic issues, and many turn their focus abroad in their lame-duck years. Mexicans are especially alarmed at the possibility that the U.S. may carry out direct military action against cartels on their country’s soil.

Such a U.S. move could badly damage Sheinbaum’s political standing.

Eric Bazail-Eimil contributed to this report.