When Stephen Miller claims that Venezuela is safer than the United States, he doesn’t want to be questioned about his sources.
While lingering in the spin room after the presidential debate Tuesday, the senior Trump adviser took questions from the press. Speaking about “criminal migrants that have been flooded [sic] in the country,” Miller claimed Venezuelan crime rates are down because all the criminals are coming to the United States.
“The crime rate in Venezuela is down, I believe, over 60 percent,” said Miller, echoing a point parroted by Trump himself. “Let’s put it this way, if you’re a dictator of a poor country with a high crime rate, wouldn’t you send your criminals to our open border?”
“Are you trusting the official figures from the Venezuelan dictatorship?” asked NTN24 reporter José María Del Pino. “Those are Maduro numbers.”
Miller repeatedly refused to answer the question—by the end yelling loudly about how the criminals are coming here.
I asked Stephen Miller, one of Donald Trump's top advisors, what is the evidence for saying that Caracas and Venezuela are safer than the United States. He began by answering that it is the government's numbers. I asked him if he trusted Maduro's numbers. And this was his… pic.twitter.com/qkXTNiGmt0
— José María Del Pino (@josemdelpino) September 11, 2024
Venezuelan security officials have reported a 25 percent drop in the country’s violent crime and homicide rate, but the absence of official reports makes it hard to verify the data. Equally important, there’s no indication that any such drop is because of an “open border” or because Maduro “let his criminals out of their jails” and into U.S. cities.
Miller is best known for his cruel immigration policies (which include eliminating DACA, enacting the Muslim ban, and implementing family separation) and his bad temper, which eventually got him demoted. Clearly, both of these impulses were on full display during his latest altercation with the press.
By the end, a shouting Miller tries to badger the reporter with questions, rather than the other way around. “Are Venezuelan gangs in this country, yes or no? Yes or no?” he repeats over and over again.
“Sir, you said that in Venezuela the crime rate is lower than the USA; what are your numbers? That is the question,” said an annoyed Del Pino.
As Del Pino notes, the Venezuelan homicide rate is still four times higher than that of the U.S. At the same time, violent crime and homicides have also dropped in the U.S., a point you won’t see Miller or Trump bringing up.
