Stephen Miller’s America First Legal looks to deal ‘significant blow’ to ‘woke cult’ in year ahead

EXCLUSIVE: A conservative legal group set up by former Trump White House advisor Stephen Miller, after having scored a number of legal victories against the Biden administration, is now turning its focus to hitting what Miller calls a "woke cult" in the private as well as the public sector.

"I would say our ability to deliver a significant blow to the equity cult, to the woke ideologues that have infiltrated effectively every facet of American life is how I would like to measure our success this year, because I think that's existential for the country," Miller told Fox News Digital in an interview.

America First Legal which includes on its board of directors a slew of former top Trump officials, has hit both the Biden administration and state governments with a battery of lawsuits and other legal actions that have in a number of high-profile instances seen either the withdrawal of or the blocking of key policies.

One of its main focuses has been immigration. The group teamed up with Louisiana and Texas to win an injunction in August against the administration's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) priorities which limited which illegal immigrants the agency could target for arrest and deportation. This year it claimed a major victory when a district court barred the administration from releasing COVID-19 positive illegal immigrant children into the U.S. 

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It currently has lawsuits attempting to block the Biden administration’s new asylum rule -- which would transfer cases from immigration judges to asylum officers in U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) -- and the re-implementation of the Obama-era Central American Minors program.

Miller, who was a top immigration hawk in the Trump administration, said that the situation at the border is "cataclysmically disastrous" under President Joe Biden, but would be even more dire without the legal handcuffs that had been placed on the administration.

"As hard as it is to believe, absent the lawsuits that have been filed, the situation would be yet even more incomprehensibly worse. We would be far past the point of no return," he said.

The group has also been active in targeting what it alleges is race-based discrimination by the Biden administration. It won two injunctions in 2021 to stop COVID-19 relief in the American Rescue Plan going to farmers in a way that was prioritized by race, and this year saw three states end their prioritization of certain groups for COVID-19 medical care after AFL threatened legal action.

"I am confident that absent the threat of litigation, having seen our previous track record in this space, that those programs would be persisting to this day," Miller said.

In addition to its various lawsuits, it has also issued dozens of amicus briefs and Freedom of Information Act requests on issues ranging from government contracts for ICE facilities to race equity programs in NASA, and the baby formula shortage.

Most recently, it had broadened its attention to include the private sector. The AFL Center for Legal Equality offers legal representation to those it believes are victims of race, sex, religious or political discrimination in the private sector, as well as the public sector. The group says that it is aiming to target the equity crusade that is consuming big business, big education and big government.

"You can't think of these as being separate spheres, in other words, government, academic, corporate -- they all work hand in glove with one another. I know this having been in Washington and positions of various responsibilities in government, you see it, you see the collusion between the corporate world, the academic world and the government world," Miller said.

The former Trump adviser said the majority of damage inflicted by the woke agenda is imposed at the private sector using incentive structures created by the government -- whether that be an attempt to curry favor with the government or a revolving door between the corporate, educational and governmental worlds.

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"And so we've launched a center to say to Americans who are victimized by these policies at school or at the workplace that you can come to us, and if we take your case, you will get completely free legal representation, pro bono. You'll never pay a cent," he said. "And our hope is that if we're able to take the lawsuit, that we will not only help you, but in the process of helping you help many others who are similarly situated, by enjoining the policy that you are suffering from."

AFL filed a lawsuit earlier this week against Loudoun County Public Schools "for the district’s systemic and egregious moral corruption of children and its deliberate, and almost gleeful, violations of parental rights to control the upbringing of their children." Ian Prior, a senior advisor at the group, said that he believes the center will make "a huge difference" in the parents’ movement that has grown in the last two years and has pushed back aggressively against a woke agenda being pushed in schools. 

"They haven't known where to go. They haven't known how to, or have allies that can go help them, exercise their constitutional rights in a court of law," Prior said. "And these parents all around the country really are extremely dedicated to standing up for their children and a quality education and are committed to things like meritocracy, equal opportunity. And they're seeing that essentially disappear from school systems across the country."

Miller says the country is involved in a struggle between two competing belief systems that are incompatible -- one being the traditional American and Enlightenment values and traditions guided by Judeo-Christian heritage, and the other being a "woke cult that rejects the idea of neutrality, rejects the idea of objectivity, rejects even the scientific method, and considers propaganda and indoctrination to be a positive good, that tolerates no dissent."

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"Only one can win the struggle," he said. "And so if we're able through our court system, through our legal system, as well as through hopefully the public attention those efforts will generate, if we're able to deal a significant strike against this woke lunacy, I will consider that to have been a successful year."

Gene Hamilton, who worked as a senior Justice Department (DOJ) lawyer in the Trump administration before joining AFL, was similarly optimistic about the battles that lie ahead.

"Our organization has been dedicated to fighting for equality and equal treatment for all Americans. And we're prepared for the challenge. We're ready to take it on, ready to take on the slings and arrows that come our way because it's the right thing to do."