Top Trump Aide: 'Outrageous, Insulting, Ignorant And Foolish' To Say Immigration Bill Is Racist

WASHINGTON, DC — Top White House aide Stephen Miller on Wednesday defended the president's proposal that would cut the legal immigration level in half, saying that it was "insulting" to imply that the policy is racist.

Miller engaged in heated back-and-forths with the New York Times' Glenn Thrush and CNN's Jim Acosta, who pressed the White House to justify the policy. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Thrush asked Miller to cite statistics that support the White House's view that immigration harms low-skilled workers. Miller referred to the work of George Borjas, a researcher from Harvard who studied the "Mariel boatlift," a sudden influx of immigrants into the Miami area during the 1980s. Borjas argues that, though overall wages rose after the influx, certain groups of low-income men saw depressed wage growth. Borjas' work is the subject of extensive controversy, and economists by and large argue that immigration's benefits far outweigh its costs.

Miller and Acosta ended up in a tense exchange in part about the Statue of Liberty. Acosta argued that the new policy goes against the statue's poem, which says in part, "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Miller said that the poem was added after the original construction of the statue.

But the exchange quickly became personal, with Acosta referring to his own father's immigration and Miller accusing the reporter of showing his "cosmopolitan bias."

When Acosta said the new policy, which includes preference for immigrants who speak English, seemed to target specific racial ethnic groups, Miller lashed out.

"Jim, that is one of the most outrageous, insulting, ignorant and foolish things you've ever said," he said.

Earlier in the day, President Trump announced a new bill designed to limit legal immigration and impose a points-based system for accepting newcomers to the country. The New York Times reported Tuesday night that the administration is also considering directing the Department of Justice to go after colleges and universities that implement affirmative action policies that provide benefits to racial minorities.

Trump also signed a bill sanctioning Russia on Wednesday, a move that he apparently did with some reluctance. In a signing statement, he said he was concerned about the constitutionality of some of the bill's provisions.

Watch a video of the entire briefing below, including comments from Sarah Huckabee Sanders:

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images