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Stephen Miller's New York Times wedding announcement sparks backlash

<span>Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP</span>
Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP

By all accounts it was a nice day for a white wedding. On Sunday, Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s top immigration adviser, married Katie Waldman. Waldman, who currently serves as Mike Pence’s press secretary, was formerly a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security under Kirstjen Nielsen.

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Naturally, the loving couple held their nuptials, which the president attended, at one of his properties, Trump International Hotel in Washington DC.

News of the wedding was reported in the New York Times, much like any other run-of-the-mill, high-powered DC couple would be, hiding any mention of the pair’s ideology inside hyperlinks.

But it led to a raft of condemnation online, triggered by Miller’s position and record as one of the longest-serving members of the Trump administration, who has been the driving force behind policies such as the Muslim ban and the family separation policy at the border.

Last year, Democrats demanded Miller resign after hundreds of his emails promoting white nationalism to rightwing journalists were revealed. Meanwhile, Waldman has referred to asylum seekers at the border as a “violent mob of migrants” and accused them of attacking border agents. She has also dismissed groups of migrants traveling together as a media hoax.

The simplistic New York Times wedding announcement on the ceremony made for hostile comment.

Comedians had a field day.

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee seized upon the news of the wedding to launch a registry in their honor.

“Stephen Miller has made it his life’s mission to strip all compassion and understanding from US immigration policy,” it reads.

“As a thank you, we at Full Frontal want to get him a wedding present that we know he’ll hate.” Included is a wishlist of items from charities who help asylum seekers and migrants such as mittens, underwear and socks.

Critics pulled no punches.

Even the political symbolism of the wedding singer came under scrutiny.

Though the bride herself did not seem put off.

The truth is that US immigration policy is no laughing matter.

Over two-thirds of migrants fleeing Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador suffered the murder, kidnapping or disappearance of a loved one before leaving, according to Doctors Without Borders.

Dozens of migrants have died in Ice custody during the Trump administration. At least 200 migrants deported to El Salvador have been raped, murdered, or tortured.