Stephen Miller’s uncle wrote the story of the family’s arrival in the U.S. in the early 20th century and their success as Americans.
The author is the brother of Stephen’s mother. What he does not explain is how this grandson of immigrants, this child of privilege, became so hateful and bigoted. As a Jew, he embarrasses me. I just did 23&Me. Thank God I’m not related to this vile little man.
The story begins in 1903:
“Let me tell you a story about Stephen Miller and chain migration.
“It begins at the turn of the 20th century in a dirt-floor shack in the village of Antopol, a shtetl of subsistence farmers in what is now Belarus. Beset by violent anti-Jewish pogroms and forced childhood conscription in the Czar’s army, the patriarch of the shack, Wolf-Leib Glosser, fled a village where his forebears had lived for centuries and took his chances in America.
“He set foot on Ellis Island on January 7, 1903, with $8 to his name. Though fluent in Polish, Russian, and Yiddish he understood no English. An elder son, Nathan, soon followed. By street corner peddling and sweat-shop toil Wolf-Leib and Nathan sent enough money home to pay off debts and buy the immediate family’s passage to America in 1906. That group included young Sam Glosser, who with his family settled in the western Pennsylvania city of Johnstown, a booming coal and steel town that was a magnet for other hard-working immigrants. The Glosser family quickly progressed from selling goods from a horse and wagon to owning a haberdashery in Johnstown run by Nathan and Wolf-Leib to a chain of supermarkets and discount department stores run by my grandfather, Sam, and the next generation of Glossers, including my dad, Izzy. It was big enough to be listed on the AMEX stock exchange and employed thousands of people over time. In the span of some 80 years and five decades, this family emerged from poverty in a hostile country to become a prosperous, educated clan of merchants, scholars, professionals, and, most important, American citizens.
“What does this classically American tale have to do with Stephen Miller? Well, Izzy Glosser is his maternal grandfather, and Stephen’s mother, Miriam, is my sister.
“I have watched with dismay and increasing horror as my nephew, who is an educated man and well aware of his heritage, has become the architect of immigration policies that repudiate the very foundation of our family’s life in this country.
“I shudder at the thought of what would have become of the Glossers had the same policies Stephen so coolly espouses— the travel ban, the radical decrease in refugees, the separation of children from their parents, and even talk of limiting citizenship for legal immigrants— been in effect when Wolf-Leib made his desperate bid for freedom. The Glossers came to the U.S. just a few years before the fear and prejudice of the “America First” nativists of the day closed U.S. borders to Jewish refugees. Had Wolf-Leib waited, his family would likely have been murdered by the Nazis along with all but seven of the 2,000 Jews who remained in Antopol. I would encourage Stephen to ask himself if the chanting, torch-bearing Nazis of Charlottesville, whose support his boss seems to court so cavalierly, do not envision a similar fate for him.”
Read the rest of the story.
I recall that Miller wants to admit only those immigrants with skills the country needs and English language. That would have excluded his forebears.
What a terrible man.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane Yes, Congress and the office of President are chock-full of such stories (of chain hypocrisy).
I thank Miller’s uncle for writing about his nephew. He’s like the brother of the Unibomber who turned his brother in to the authorities.
And it’s not a new story. In one of his dialogues, Plato has Socrates ask a friend, who had turned his father in for murdering a slave: “How can you turn your father in and be right?” The murderer of a slave was in the wrong, and so is Stephen. But the son and the uncle still have to live in a terrible tension, with their family on one side, and right on the other. CBK
Cross posted here https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Stephen-Miller-Architect-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Citizenship_Immigrants_Immigration_Immigration-Legal-180813-975.html
Miller is a hypocrite that betrays his own heritage. He has forgotten that this country was built by hard working immigrants that appreciate our freedom and opportunities. Miller would caste out those that like his ancestors seek a life free of fear and full of opportunity. It is shocking that people like Miller would throw out immigrants seeking a better, safer life for their children. Although portrayed by Miller and people of his ilk as criminals and takers, immigrants commit less crime, and they are a net plus to our economy. The deplorables are influenced by prejudice rather than logic and facts. I spent my whole career working with immigrants, some of the most resourceful and resilient people I have ever known. https://www.unidosus.org/issues/immigration/resources/facts
“Miller would caste out those ….” Good joke. Miller would start a new caste system here in America. Untouchables would be defined I. Terms of his own warped view of himself.
I hope that David S. Glosser has an intense one-on-one, tete-a-tete with his errant nephew. Actually, I wish he would get him in a corner and slap some sense into S.M., literally. Sadly, it’s probably too late for this one-on-one to have any positive effect on this stooge; Miller has made his choice in life and it is for the side of bigotry, prejudice and intolerance.
There is a long and despicable tradition of members of one already ascendant but formerly despised immigrants group turning on new vulnerable immigrants. It is fed by continuing inequity and the unchallenged assumptions that inequity is normal and fixed, that cross-group unity is impossible, and that therefore survival of the fittest and selfish is the only viable survival strategy. That ignores the proud history of the civil rights and union movements that brought Americans most of the triumphs for justice of the 20th century, most notably Social Security, unemployment insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and voting rights, just to name a few.
Diane, I feel the same embarrassment! Every time I see someone of obvious immigrant heritage — especially Ashkenazi Jewish — support this administration’s horrid immigration policies I feel ashamed for them. My grandmother used to have a saying…it was in Yiddish, but the translation is essentially, “If a stranger is a fool, it’s laughable. If one of your own is a fool, it’s shameful.”
Stephen Miller enjoyed the privileges of being white and wealthy. He never got the compassion gene. Or the kindness gene. Or any other gene that would counter his bigotry and hatred. I recall hearing that as a student at Santa Monica High School, he complained about the kitchen help, who were never fast enough to pick up whatever he dropped on the floor.
One of many accounts of his early bigotry and how that led him to be a darling for this White House is here.
https://www.vanityfair.com%2Fnews%2F2017%2F05%2Fstephen-miller-duke-donald-trump&usg=AOvVaw1ISeNTtnCM6ktLdVlahCAW
BTW: The President of the United States just admitted on Twitter that he kept a total incompetent who was causing lots of friction and problems in the White House because she said GREAT things about him.
Funny how the Trump crew reacts to apostates. Guiliani said of Michael Cohen that he was a horrible lawyer and a scumbag. Yet he was Trump’s personal lawyer for many years. A scumbag? What does that say about his most famous client, maybe his only client?
Yes, but POTUS essentially says every day that he himself is a scumbag, if you read into his Tweets and attempts at policy. Then again, it sort of mutes the whole scenario of keeping on a disruptive incompetent because she says good things about him when he himself is a disruptive incompetent, and lowlife for that matter. Maybe people should put on Looney Toons costumes, like Tazmanian Devil and Daffy Duck, tell Treasonous he’s great and run amok on the White House lawn. And inside they can sort of play court jesters slash psychodramatists while T-bonehead watches Fox and Friends or Casper and Friends or reads Little Archies.
It occurred to me today that this character from the movie Sin City reminds me of Stephen Miller.
HA! Yes
And likely the only reason that Trump says nothing about Jews is because his dear daughter is married to one and converted. Silence from the Kushner family also. It’s all about ME and nothing to do with WE. Tyranny is about ME, Democracy is about WE.
I have a similar background and, with anti-Semitism on the rise today, here and globally, I can’t even begin to describe how horrified, disgusted and embarrassed I am, too, by that “vile little man.”
Something is very seriously wrong with people who welcome and encourage haters like Neo-Nazis, xenophobes, misogynists and racists, amongst their base, including Trump and his inner circle, such as Miller, Kushner and Ivanka. Clearly, they have no genuine compassion for others and are really committed only to their own #MeFirst agenda. They are heartless, unconscionable and unethical –which is a very short step to lawbreaker in countries like ours…
Of course, most Americans come from immigrants. A lot of us are familiar with family stories about one ancestor who came over first, to gain a footing and earn some money, and how they then sent for the rest of the family to come join them, so many of us are beneficiaries of planned “chain migration.” That includes the so-called president’s wife. See: “‘Unconscionable’: Melania Trump’s Parents’ Lawyer Blasts the President For Opposing Family Based Immigration:” https://www.alternet.org/michael-wildes-blasts-trump-opposing-family-immigration
It should be noted that, as the lawyer for Melania’s parents stated, Trump’s definition and use of the term “chain migration” is a misnomer, because you can’t just bring in cousins, aunts & uncles, etc. It should be called family reunification, because it’s about bringing in spouses, children and parents.
In my family’s case, my Orthodox great-grandfather came here first from England and said he’d send for his wife and kids, but my great-grandmother didn’t hear from him, and she was pregnant, so she got nervous. She had proof of his immigration though, so she gathered up their daughters and brought them here herself. She looked but never found her husband and she soon became blind, so she set up a hair salon in the basement of a tenement to support her family. My grandfather, who was the one in her womb and the only son, was thus born here and he went to work as a kid doing odd jobs to help support his family. Eventually he became a milliner, when no one left their homes without a hat, and he opened his own very successful stores.
Many immigrants have similar stories, resulting in a beautiful patchwork quilt that represents our diverse American family-at-large. We have a vast nation with plenty of room and resources for many more people, so while I don’t advocate for completely open borders, I do think that #YouToo should be our motto today, instead of the #OnlyWhiteChristians notion that Trump and so many of his haters prefer. (You’d think that Miller, Kushner and Ivanka would want to do something about their not being included in that agenda!)
Especially the children of Republican politicians know that moral bankruptcy characterizes their fathers- Virginia Representative Goodlattie’s son wants his father’s seat to be filled by a Dem.
Meghan McCain will stick with her “all hat, no cattle” maverick of a Dad because it’s her meal ticket and she is the usual silver spoon baby.
Miller is clueless, and a monster.
He and Obergruppenführer Sessions
Rick Berman’s son and, Miller’s uncle recognize a family member who is doing irreparable damage to the world. The families are closest to the threat. Their obligation extends beyond printed words.
If hypocrisy was a sacrament, most politicians would be sainted.
The U.S. capitalist political-economic system, in which profits, power, greed, and wealth are much more important human lives or the lives of any other creatures, inherently produces psychopaths, some of them violent, who are willing to do anything for that power and wealth.
Expecting such psychopaths to change just because we protest, email, write, call, or otherwise demonstrate, is a fool’s errand. Psychopaths have no capacity for empathy. Removal from positions of power and then jail is the only remedy, but how can we do this in such a corrupt system?
See this: Are We Governed by Secondary Psychopaths | Dissident Voice
https://dissidentvoice.org/2018/08/are-we-governed-by-secondary-psychopaths/
The main difference between our ancestors who arrived via Ellis and Angel Islands and other ports of entry into the United States, and today’s immigrants from mostly “third world” countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, etc., is that the WELFARE STATE (So-called “Great Society”, passed by the LBJ administration and greatly expanded since 1965) didn’t exist. At least the New Deal, more than 20 years before the Great Society, at least emerged from both domestic and foreign existential threats to our nation. Those immigrants were helped by family sponsors, and private charitable religious and cultural organizations, ie. the Hebrew Benevolent Society for Jewish immigrants. Whether Irish, Italian or Chinese, an immigrant without means could find some help, if it didn’t come from family or friends. Usually immigrants coming through Ellis Island needed a specific sponsor, which was usually a family member.
Now, the vast majority of immigrants receive a panoply of federal, state and local entitlements, and that situation over time often spawns nothing more than a cycle of generational poverty. There is a tremendous social cost to this generational poverty.
This makes no economic sense for the shrinking middle class, which has to shoulder the tax burden and other social costs of massive government entitlements to people who may never leave poverty. Endless immigration–both legal and illegal–and the modern welfare state are incompatible. Immigration is, and has always been, for the benefit of the NATION, not the benefit of the IMMIGRANT. If the immigrant benefits, that is wonderful, and icing on the cake, but it is not the cake. ‘Nuff said.
What a crock of Trumpist xenophobia. Even CATO, the conservative think tank founded by Libertarian billionaire David Koch, reported that the “Center for Immigration Studies Report Exaggerates Immigrant Welfare Use” and “Poor Immigrants Use Public Benefits at a Lower Rate than Poor Native-Born Citizens”
https://www.cato.org/publications/economic-development-bulletin/poor-immigrants-use-public-benefits-lower-rate-poor
homelesseducator
Agreed. The undocumented are not eligible for welfare as in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Although some assistance may be going to their children. And most legal immigrants are actually Job based having turned a temporary work visa status into a green card. Or coming here with an employer request as the ticket.
When people give the crock of crap about getting on line. They have no clue that there is practically no line available for most.
https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/why-don%E2%80%99t-they-just-get-line
Joel,
Yes, this is a very different world than how Trump, his sycophants and his poorly educated followers portray matters.
Please see the Moms Rising group and their “action calling on Congress to protect the health and safety of pregnant women in detention,” because:
“A July 9, 2018, investigative report by Buzzfeed shone a spotlight on the conditions of pregnant women held in immigration detention, including five recent instances where women miscarried due to the treatment they experienced [1]. Pregnant refugees seeking asylum had shackles placed around their stomachs, were denied prenatal treatment, lost dangerous amounts of weight, and were refused medical treatment when miscarriages began [2]. An Obama-era policy had previously mandated that pregnant women could not be detained, and the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy ended that directive [3].
Pregnant women must have access to appropriate prenatal medical care so they do not miscarry while in ICE custody. Detention centers are no place for a woman to carry out pregnancy and give birth. This type of policy is unconscionable, cruel and unacceptable.
This is where YOU can make a difference! By adding your signature, you will be part of a movement urging members of Congress to support the Stop Shackling and Detaining Pregnant Women Act.”
People can add their signatures here: https://action.momsrising.org/sign/we-must-stand-pregnant-immigrant-moms/
Kael
First, this article is not about chain migration. When Glosser entered the country at the turn of the last century(1903-06) you did not need a sponsor no less a relative. However, a contact person was required; simple enough to have the name of someone somewhere in America scribbled on a napkin… Immigrants were examined for diseases and physical limitations that would have prevented them from supporting themselves asked a few questions about how they would do so and sent on their way.
The trail of tears at Ellis Island affected a fraction of 1% of Immigrants. As we got closer to the 1920s several other requirements like having $25 or a railroad ticket to a final destination were added. In short, unless you were Chinese or a person of color, America had an open door policy till 1921. There was no Nation of origin restrictions from any part of Europe till 1924.
Now I am an economic populist. As such I say that immigrants have always been used to undercut the wages of Native-born American workers.
But you are asserting that immigrants are a drag on society, that immigrants need the social assistance of the state. To the contrary employers who employ immigrants at wages, an American won’t work at are the drag on society. From 1933 to 1940 the INS was part of the labor department. They had it right. There is no reason that immigrants or Americans should have to work at wages that require assistance from the state while working a full-time job.
In short:
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,”
But pay them a living wage.
ALEC destroyed the middle class, resulting in a loss of demand for goods and services which is required for economic growth. The concentration of wealth apparent when six heirs to the Walton fortune have wealth equivalent to 40% of Americans makes for a grim picture of future prosperity. Without people buying the things that their Social Security checks buy (the Koch’s balanced budget destroys Social Security) there will be less demand and greater concentration of wealth. Social Security and Medicare require young workers paying in. Concentration of wealth adversely affected American birth rates. The nation can only hope that people will continue to want to come to the U.S. shores., or else the picture would be even bleaker.
Kael, your post encouraged me to do some fact-finding.
Undocumented immigrants are generally not eligible for any federal public benefits or healthcare, with the exception of undocumented minors in some states .
Approved DACA status can be revoked at any time and does not grant eligibility for federal public benefits or healthcare .
U-Visa (capped at 10,000/yr) is for victims of certain violent crimes who are certified by a justice official as aiding in a criminal investigation. Not eligible for public benefits other than healthcare at an HHS clinic, & WIC where applicable (nutrition assistance for pregnant/ breastfeeding women and their small children) .
T-Visa (capped at 5000/yr) is for victims of & here as a result of human trafficking. Eligible for most public benefits .
SIJS (Special Immigrant Juvenile Status) is for unaccompanied minors: they end up ward of state or placed w/relative if they persuade a judge of need for protection from abuse/ neglect/ abandonment in home country. Number not yet capped, but may be soon; it has been running about 15,000/yr since the troubles in Northern Triangle. Must wait 5 yrs before eligible for public benefits .
VAWA (Violence Against Women Act) Self-Petitioner: for undocumented spouse & minor children of citizen or legal permanent resident who can prove extreme domestic violence by spouse/ parent. Only 3650 petitions were approved in 2017. Eligible for certain public benefits; 5-yr bar applies in many cases .
What welfare state, what great society? Clinton signed the welfare reform act in 1996. Clinton said his act would “end welfare as we have come to know it.” The welfare rolls have been reduced by about 60% since then. Actually, LBJ’s war on poverty was working and he was reducing poverty. The GOP/libertarians regard Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA, Food Stamps, CHIPS as the welfare state which must be stamped out, eviscerated and incinerated. The GOP/libertarians hate poor people with a passion.
Diane: you are no more responsible for the behavior of a fellow Jew than I am responsible for the behavior of a fellow Methodist. I refer in these vague and general terms to George W. Bush, who claimed Methodism when he ran for office.
I was under the impression that we were all related to some female in distant Africa, long before the Bantu culture. Being 85% English does not make me responsible for the slave trade.
That said, we can all try to influence those around us. We must. Rousseau rightly pointed out that, when people start to perceive the futility of belonging to the democratic state, the state is lost.
An exception- The Lutheran hierarchy is responsible for a minister who espouses repugnant views to his congregation and acts on those same views in his capacity as an elected member of a State’s School Board.
Lutheran hierarchy that backs Betsy DeVos makes the church unwelcome in a democracy.
Lutherans support DeVos?
Joe Six-Pack sitting on a bar stool ranting, when listeners have no expectation that he has a professional job nor have knowledge about his affiliations, can say whatever he wants (exception yelling “fire” in a crowded room when there’s no fire.)
When a teacher, executive, minister, policeman/woman, etc. makes offensive comments, supports a noxious political agenda, etc. in a public forum, their employers have an obligation to distance themselves from the individual to preserve the institution’s reputation. If they don’t, the public draws a conclusion that the employer shares the view. Frequently, employment contracts for professionals include contract language that addresses the issue. The Catholic Church has done a very poor job of distancing itself from pedophilia and its reputation has suffered as a result.