First Lady Melania Trump is reportedly behind President Donald Trump's cooling stance toward his deportation chief, Stephen Miller. According to The Wall Street Journal, Melania Trump expressed her distress to the president earlier this year after friends of hers were subjected to deportation proceedings. This reportedly led Trump to begin telling aides that Miller had "gone too far."
Miller, who served as deputy White House chief of staff, is credited with orchestrating a significant immigration crackdown. However, Trump's commitment to this policy appears to have wavered throughout the year, with conflicting directives given to aides regarding its intensity.
The shift in the White House's approach may have been influenced by public outcry following the deaths of two citizens during Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. Renee Good, a 37-year-old writer, was killed in Minneapolis by an ICE officer in January. Witnesses disputed the Department of Homeland Security's claim that Good attempted to ram agents. Seventeen days later, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, was shot by a Border Patrol officer while filming agents making an arrest.
Despite defenses of the officers involved by Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and amplification of their messaging by Vice President JD Vance, President Trump reportedly expressed concern over videos of the killings. He instructed then-press secretary Karoline Leavitt to distance him from his team's statements and dispatched immigration czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis to address the situation. As of November 2026, no agents have been charged in connection with either death.