DID DONALD EVEN EXIST:

For the last four years, the headlines focused on the administration's more sensational anti-immigration initiatives including the "Muslim" travel ban; scrapping the DACA program that gave deportation relief to those who were brought to the United States without authorization as children; the Great Wall of Trump; a zero-tolerance border policy that ended up snatching babies from migrant moms seeking asylum and viciously separating families. In addition, the Migration Policy Institute has identified more than 400-plus behind-the-scenes executive actions and rule changes that have received less attention but have been even more effective in walling out immigrants.

Consider immigrant visas for the overseas family members -- spouses, minor children, parents and siblings -- of American citizens and permanent residents. Even before the pandemic, Cato Institute's David Bier calculated that immigration under this category had declined by about 24 percent compared to 2016 because the administration slowed processing and doubled the denial rate. But things came to a near complete halt during the pandemic. In May, the administration allowed a measly 782 immigrants in this category compared to the monthly average of 55,000 four years ago. How did Miller accomplish this feat? He used the pretext of the pandemic to shut down consular offices so that they could no longer conduct the mandatory in-person interviews. However, he did not allow them to switch to online interviews, putting applicants in a complete bind. All in all, under this administration, about 738,000 fewer overseas family members of Americans will be admitted into the country -- the other family separation policy that no one talks about.

But it's not just foreigners abroad whom Miller has thwarted. He also made it infinitely more difficult for foreign professionals and others already in the U.S. to upgrade temporary visas to green cards or permanent resident status. Compared to 2016, the Trump administration is approving less than half of their applications and by January, if the current rate persists, about 246,313 fewer such applicants will be able to get green cards.

It took Miller a few years to implement his diabolical plans to slam these two categories of immigrants. Not so with respect to refugees. Right off the bat he slashed the annual refugee cap from 110,000 under Obama to 15,000 now, a historic low. And he subjected them to such "extreme vetting" that the U.S. isn't even going to hit that ceiling. All in all, during Trump's tenure, America will end up admitting nearly 300,000 fewer refugees than if 2016 levels had been maintained.

Refugees of course settle permanently in the U.S. as do others seeking green cards. But Miller hasn't even spared tourists and business travelers who want to just visit America for a short time. Bier estimates that the Trump administration has issued nine million fewer visas than would have been the case had it maintained the 2016 rate. Some of this drop can be attributed to coronavirus-related travel restrictions, but much of it happened before that.

The upshot is that the backlog of applications for any kind of immigration benefit -- green cards, temporary work visas, tourist visas, you name it -- has skyrocketed. Before Trump assumed office, this backlog was two times the quarterly number of new applications, which was shameful enough. But now this backlog has almost doubled. Currently, seven million people wishing to come to the U.S. for any reason are cooling their heels.

America's immigration system is restrictive but it is not this restrictive. Congress has created all these programs to give immigrants functioning pathways to come to the country. But Miller and Trump have jammed literally all of them. Moreover, Bier and his Cato colleague Alex Nowrasteh point out, Miller's actions have contradicted every principle that Congress has enshrined in immigration law including family reunification, equal treatment by nationality, and humanitarian relief for those escaping persecution or political turmoil.

How did he accomplish this? Essentially by abusing grants of executive power in immigration law when he could. And when he couldn't, he grabbed these powers from other laws.

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