After news broke last week that Google's latest head of national security policy engagement was Miles Taylor, former chief of staff to DHS undersecretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Google tried to calm its outraged staff by insisting that Taylor had nothing to do with Trump's Kids in Cages policy that shattered families forever and murdered innocent children, nor with Trump's racist ethnic cleansing Muslim Ban.
And while it's true that Taylor's career in the DHS took place after the Muslim Ban, it's also unequivocally, indisputably true that he was a vocal defender of the ban.
As to Kids in Cages, Google is just lying. Taylor was instrumental to the plan, creating the "Protecting Children Narrative" for his boss, and participating in multiple calls during the PR crisis, whose subject, per his official calendar, was "discuss Border Security and Immigration Enforcement." Taylor drafted testimony for his boss defending the policy, and was exchanging daily emails helping to manage the PR around family separation, including emails sent on the same day Google CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted "The stories and images of families being separated at the border are gut-wrenching. Urging our government to work together to find a better, more humane way that is reflective of our values as a nation."
On May 5, 2018, Nielsen sent an email to Taylor; Chad Wolf, her chief of staff; and Jonathan Hoffman, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, asking for “narratives” by 10 the next morning. Days before, a caravan of Central American immigrants had made its way to the US–Mexico border in Tijuana.The Trump administration’s family separation was already in effect, after then–attorney general Jeff Sessions’ call in April for a “zero tolerance policy” for border-crossing offenses.
The following day, Taylor responded. “Madam Secretary, attached is the updated Caravan Narrative and the Protecting Children Narrative,” he wrote. “The narratives for TPS and Refugees/Asylees are forthcoming. Will have those to you within the hour.”
TPS likely refers to “Temporary Protected Status,” said a former DHS official, and describes asylum-seekers who are allowed to live in the US for a limited time due to unrest or conflict in their home countries.
As deputy chief of staff, Taylor helped draft written testimony for the DHS secretary, which Nielsen called “seriously well done” ahead of a Senate hearing titled “Authorities and Resources Needed to Protect and Secure the United States.” The testimony addressed cybersecurity, FEMA, and terrorism — but made DHS’s priority clear.
A Google Staffer Helped Sell Trump's Family Separation Policy, Despite The Company Denials [Ryan Mac and Jason Leopold/Buzzfeed]
(via /.)
(Image: Quinn Dombrowski, CC BY-SA, modified)
