THE FULL AERYS TARGARYEN:

The Washington Post reported last week that Trump has told Stephen Miller, his top immigration adviser, that he is now in charge of all immigration and border policy. With the number of families crossing the southern border at a record high, Miller is deflecting blame away blame from the White House and onto DHS. On Friday, Miller succeeded in getting Trump to pull his nominee for ICE director, the agency's acting head, Ronald Vitiello. On Sunday, Trump forced out DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, whom Miller also disliked, and announced that he would replace her on an acting basis with CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan. In the midst of what Trump has declared to be a national emergency at the southern border, the United States will have no permanent leader at DHS, CBP, or ICE. At DHS, ICE, and USCIS, the deputy directors are also serving on a temporary basis.

Now Miller is reportedly pushing Trump to fire Lee Francis Cissna, the head of USCIS, the DHS agency that handles legal immigration. Cissna is a methodical hardliner who is arguably doing a more effective job of keeping immigrants out of the United States than any other Trump official. USCIS is in the process of implementing a rule to deny green cards to immigrants who are likely to use public benefits like Medicare, a move that could reshape the future of legal immigration. What Miller hopes to gain by getting rid of Cissna is unclear. Even the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Miller ally that seeks to eliminate almost all legal immigration, believes firing Cissna would be a "colossal mistake." The New York Times reported on Monday that Cissna is expected to leave government soon.

Miller and Trump had no clear endgame in getting rid of Vitiello and Nielsen, either. Nielsen was the face of the administration's disastrous--and ultimately abandoned--family separation policy.

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