'Jobs could be in jeopardy': Stephen Miller berates staff as Trump polling sinks

Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reportedly played a good-cop, bad-cop routine in a tense staff meeting last week as president Donald Trump's polling sinks on a key issue.

Miller, the deputy White House chief of staff, berated immigration officials during the May 21 meeting at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters, four source familiar with the meeting told Axios, and demanded 3,000 arrests a day – which is triple the number that agents were making in the early days of Trump's presidency.

"The increased pressure on agents comes as border-crossing numbers have plummeted in Trump's first four months," Axios reported. "It signals an increasingly aggressive approach to making arrests in non-border communities nationwide. It also comes as the Trump administration's heavy-handed tactics in rounding up unauthorized immigrants — and in some cases, legal residents and even U.S. citizens — appear to have contributed to President Trump's slipping poll numbers on immigration."

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Noem, on the other hand, solicited feedback from ICE leaders, and special government employee Corey Lewandowski, also spoke at the meeting, which left participants distressed.

"Miller's directive and tone had people leaving the meeting feeling their jobs could be in jeopardy if the new targets aren't reached, two of the sources said," Axios reported. "A third person said Miller was trying to motivate people with a harsh tone."

About 49,000 people are already in ICE custody, according to the latest government data, but Congress hasn't appropriated nearly enough money to accommodate that many detainees, so GOP lawmakers are trying to provide $147 billion in additional funds over the next 10 years – which has alarmed civil rights advocates.

"Immigration advocates have warned that if ICE gets more money and resources, more Americans and legal immigrants will be wrongfully detained and possibly deported," Axios reported.