Legal experts smacked down Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller’s ominous message to ICE agents that they enjoy “federal immunity” and argued that he might have just opened himself up to impeachment proceedings.
During an appearance Tuesday on The Will Cain Show on Fox News, Miller directly addressed immigration enforcement agents in a breathless rant that was shared by the Department of Homeland Security’s official X account.
“You have immunity to perform your duties, and no one—no city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist—can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties,” Miller said. “The Department of Justice has made clear that if officials cross that line into obstruction, into criminal conspiracy against the United States or against ICE officers, then they will face justice.”
X.com/Department of Homeland Security
The message came as ICE faced widespread condemnation and possible legal action over the killing of Minnesota mother Renee Nicole Good, 37, who was shot in the face by an ICE agent while trying to drive away from the scene of a protest.
Miller and other members of President Donald Trump’s administration have falsely claimed that Jonathan Ross, the 43-year-old agent who shot Good, enjoys immunity from prosecution because he was a federal agent “doing his job.”
The Trump administration has tried to paint Christian stay-at-home mother Renee Nicole Good as a domestic terrorist. Facebook
In fact, the Supreme Court has held that the president enjoys absolute immunity from criminal persecution for all “official acts” but has not extended that same protection to other federal officials.
“There is no blanket ‘immunity’ for criminal behavior. States can and should hold federal officers accountable,” public defender Eli Northrup wrote in response to Miller’s message, which DHS described as a “REMINDER.”
“He’s not a lawyer,” Northrup added.
Luis Alejo, an attorney and elected official in Monterey County, California, responded with a warning for the ICE agents addressed by Miller: “Don’t ever listen to legal advice from a non-lawyer!!”
The Trump administration has falsely claimed that ICE agent Jonathan Ross is immune from prosecution. Screenshot/Max Nesterak/X
And over on the social media platform Bluesky, Marquette Law School Prof. Kali Murray agreed that ICE agents should not be taking legal advice from Miller.
“Your now weekly reminder that Stephen Miller did not go to law school and has no idea what he is talking about at all,” Murray wrote in a thread.
She also argued that if DHS is citing Miller, that could make him subject to impeachment.
“I have been circumspect on a Miller impeachment because he has not gone through Senate confirmation,” she wrote. “This, however, appears to be a direct order to ICE agents.”
A law school professor argued that if Stephen Miller is giving direct orders to agents with Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security, he could be subject to impeachment. Star Tribune via Getty Images
If Miller is exercising direct control of an agency’s actions, there’s an argument to be made that he’s acting as a principal “civil officer” and therefore impeachable regardless of whether he was confirmed, Murray explained in her thread.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and DHS for comment.
Trump and other senior officials, including Vice President JD Vance and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, have desperately sought to portray Good as a “domestic terrorist” who attempted to run over Ross with her vehicle, despite video from the scene that showed her tires were facing away from the immigration agents when she was shot.
The administration has been accused of a cover-up with regards to the killing after the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division refused to investigate the killing. The division’s criminal section usually investigates fatal shootings by law enforcement officers and specializes in determining whether deadly force was justified.
President Trump’s Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon has announced her office is not probing Good’s death and is instead treating the ICE agent who shot her as the victim in the case. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
That refusal led to an exodus of the section’s leadership this week, according to reports from CBS News and MS NOW.
The Trump administration has also tried to prevent the state of Minnesota, which has jurisdiction over potential murder cases, from investigating Good’s killing, which is being probed by the FBI.
