House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries vowed Sunday that his party would refuse to work with Stephen Miller after President Donald Trump promoted his longtime immigration adviser to White House chief of staff.
Jeffries, who is expected to become House speaker when Democrats take control in January, called the appointment “an awful choice” during an interview with ABC’s Jonathan Karl.
He said the cooperation he had maintained with outgoing chief of staff Susie Wiles would not extend to her replacement.
“There’s not going to be any opportunity, certainly, to work with Stephen Miller and what he represents,” Jeffries told This Week. He argued that Democratic victories in both congressional chambers had given the party the means to resist the administration’s agenda.
His warning came after Tuesday’s midterm elections gave Democrats control of the House and Senate, changing the balance of power confronting Trump for the remainder of his term.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries calls President Trump appointing Stephen Miller as his new chief of staff an “irresponsible decision.”
“There's not going to be any opportunity to work with Stephen Miller and what he represents. We're committed to forcefully pushing back… pic.twitter.com/UExzE2BumT
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) November 8, 2026
Jeffries described the new majorities as “a firewall in the House and a firewall in the Senate, thanks to the American people.”
Jeffries accused Miller, previously a central figure in the president’s immigration strategy, of responsibility for aggressive deportation policies and linked him to the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti during separate confrontations with federal officers in Minneapolis in January.
“Stephen Miller is the architect of Donald Trump’s violent mass deportation machine,” Jeffries charged. His accusations went beyond disagreement with the administration’s immigration policies, asserting that Miller bore responsibility for their consequences.
😷 Hold Anthony Fauci accountable for the Wuhan lab, the COVID cover-up, and the questions he refused to answer. 😷 Help Freedom Watch take the fight to federal court! ➡️➡️➡️ DONATE NOW!!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Good was shot after driving her vehicle forward and striking an immigration officer while officers sought to remove her from the vehicle, according to the account provided. Pretti was killed 11 days later during an encounter with Border Patrol agents after he was tackled while carrying a gun.
The White House maintained that federal authorities acted in self-defense in both incidents. Jeffries’ allegations about Miller’s responsibility remain his claims, not an established legal finding.
The Democratic leader had attacked the appointment as soon as Trump announced it. In a social media post, he called Miller a “dangerous xenophobe and reckless extremist” and demanded that the president fire him.
Earlier criticism had already prompted White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson to call Jeffries “a buffoon,” illustrating the hostility between the two sides.
Rep. Robert Garcia of California added his own warning, telling Miller to “lawyer up” and calling for scrutiny of his role in immigration enforcement and other administration decisions.
During a CNN interview Sunday, anchor Dana Bash pressed Garcia to identify a specific crime that might justify his warning.
Garcia cited family separations, immigration detention and alleged denials of due process. He also criticized decisions involving Iran and argued that Miller occupied a central position in the administration’s policymaking. His accusations called for investigation but did not establish a particular criminal offense.
Bash asked, “Do you think that anything he did was criminal?” Garcia responded that he believed Miller had been involved in actions that were unconstitutional, unjust and potentially illegal. He did not name a specific criminal charge in the exchange.
Miller, meanwhile, had offered an emphatic public pledge of loyalty to Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, after the Republican election setbacks and before Jeffries’ televised rejection of cooperation. The incoming chief of staff praised the president’s record and cast his own decade of service alongside Trump as a personal honor.
“It was the privilege of a lifetime to join President Trump all the way back in 2015 when he came down that Golden Escalator,” Miller told the gathering. He credited Trump with preserving the country’s military, economy and border, describing those assessments as reasons for Republicans to continue supporting him.
Miller also invoked the personal and legal threats Trump had faced, telling supporters that the president had endured an assassination attempt and the threat of imprisonment. He portrayed those experiences as sacrifices made on behalf of his followers and the Republican Party.
The speech culminated in a pledge of total commitment to Trump’s success. Miller described taking the chief of staff position as the honor of his life and promised unwavering service through the administration’s remaining term.
His promotion also puts a longtime internal power broker formally in charge of the White House staff. Miller had already exercised considerable influence as deputy chief of staff, particularly over immigration arrests and deportation policy, and that influence sometimes produced friction with other officials.
According to Axios, Miller pressed immigration officials in May 2025 to reach 3,000 arrests a day and confronted agency leaders who objected.
Reuters reported that he wanted arrests broadened beyond immigrants with criminal records, rather than limiting enforcement to the administration’s stated priority targets.
That approach differed from the emphasis favored by border czar Tom Homan, who supported focusing on immigrants with criminal histories and final deportation orders, according to The Wall Street Journal. The disagreement concerned how enforcement resources should be deployed, not whether the administration would pursue deportations.
CNN reported that Miller held daily immigration-focused conference calls and repeatedly contacted then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to guide operations.
Administration sources characterized the pressure to raise arrest numbers as intense, while accounts of Miller’s interactions with other officials described recurring disputes over tactics and messaging.
Noem’s successor, Markwayne Mullin, was also reported to have objected to the burden of keeping Miller updated on departmental operations. Despite their disagreements, CNN described the working relationship between Mullin and Miller as “positive.”
“All policy has to run through Stephen as an extension of the White House,” one administration source told CNN.
