Aide close to Stephen Miller tapped for refugee position at State Department

A White House aide close to senior policy adviser Stephen Miller “who has advocated strict limits on immigration into the U.S. has been selected for a top State Department post overseeing refugee admissions, according to current and former officials,” reports Nahal Toosi in Politico.

Andrew Veprek was appointed to be the deputy assistant secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM), a department official confirmed to The Hill, the Capitol Hill newspaper reported.

Current and former officials also describe Veprek’s appointment “as a blow to an already-embattled refugee bureau,” wrote Politico’s Toosi.

“My experience is that he strongly believes that fewer refugees should admitted into the United States and that international migration is something to be stopped, not managed,” former U.S. official told Politico, adding that Veprek’s views about refugees and migrants were impassioned to the point of seeming “vindictive.”

Supreme Court ruling goes against detained immigrants

The U.S. Supreme Court recently “curbed the ability of immigrants held in long-term detention during deportation proceedings to argue for their release in a ruling in sync with President Donald Trump’s get-tough approach toward immigration,” Reuters reported.

In the 5-3 decision, the court’s majority “found that federal law says immigrants who face deportation ‘shall be detained’ while their cases are being considered,” the Los Angeles Times reported. “The court’s conservatives rejected the view of federal judges in California who said detained immigrants have a right to a bail hearing after six months in jail,” the LA Times reported.

The high court’s decision is available here.