In a NY Mag piece published a few days ago, the publication broke down the rise, fall, and subsequent rise of Steve Bannon. And while the story mainly focuses on how Bannon has influenced President Donald Trump to approach controversy with stubborn defiance, it also provides a lot of information about the behind-the-scenes power dynamics. But perhaps one of the most telling parts was that in the summer of 2015 – before Bannon had joined the Trump presidential campaign in an official capacity – Bannon called on Ann Coulter and Sam Nunberg to “quickly write a white paper on Trump’s immigration policies.”
At the time, Coulter – who vilifies the immigrant community regularly – tweeted a link and called it “the greatest political document since the Magna Carta.” She didn’t reveal that she had in a hand in drafting the document, which is important, because the language employed not only helped Trump gain further support, it also informed current policies. According to the Daily Beast, this doc marked the first time that Trump’s team turned its hateful rhetoric into an anti-immigration plan.
As The New York Times reported back in August 2015, the paper – which is no longer available on Trump’s website – had three positions. The first stated that “a nation without borders is not a nation,” and the paper once again asserted Trump’s commitment to building a wall between Mexico and the United States. The second principle called for “eliminating tax credit payments to illegal immigrants” and to give more power to the “enforcement arm” of the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency. The last stated that “any immigration plan must improve jobs, wages, and security for all Americans.”
The rest of the document proposed ending birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants and making H-1B visas more selective by raising the minimum wage.
Since co-authoring the doc, Coulter has continued to spew hate about immigrants. In the meantime, the words she helped write still have an impact on the ways in which the Trump Administration is attempting to hurt the immigrant community.