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This is part of Hello, Trumpworld, Slate’s reluctant guide to the people who will be calling the shots now—at least for as long as they last in Washington.

When I covered a Donald Trump Vegas rally in person in June 2016, I found his performance that day—like many others since—so routine as to be completely unmemorable. But one thing that will forever stick in my mind is the viciousness of his opening speakers and the fervor with which the crowd ate up their hate like expiring crab legs at an all-you-can-eat resort buffet. Specifically, I will never forget seeing Stephen Miller, Trump’s then speechwriter, perform for the crowd as the candidate’s warmup act.

Who was this guy, I thought, shrilly promising to roars of approval that Trump would “protect the sanctity and security of the American family” while moaning about “sanctimonious lectures” against separating immigrant families? As Miller declared sarcastically, “Hillary Clinton says, ‘Well, we can’t have a secure border, and we can’t enforce our laws, because if we did that, it would tear apart families,’ ” the crowd booed wildly. I couldn’t help but wonder: What did he mean by “tear apart families”?

Covering immigration at the start of Trump’s first presidency, I would soon learn exactly what he was talking about.

There were the elementary school–age Yemeni refugees who told me they just wanted to be reunited with “Mom, Dad, and my friends” and “go to school every day,” after having been blocked from entering the country by the unlawful and chaotic Miller-orchestrated Muslim travel ban during Trump’s first month in office. There was the mother who had been separated from her nursing infant and other American children after one of the largest workplace raids in U.S. history hit the poultry plant where she........

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