Alisa Kasmer had these words to say about her first cousin Stephen Miller.
“But most of all, I grieve for those directly harmed by your actions For the communities here in Los Angeles, our shared home, for all of California, and the rest of the country terrorized by the cruelty you have brought upon us all. I grieve for the families shattered by cruelty dressed up as “immigration policy.” Targeting hardworking, vibrant community members who are being terrorized for simply being brown. This was never about criminals. Or “illegal” entry. And now, with the passing of this bloated, grotesque bill—stuffed with more funding for ICE than most countries spend on their entire military, I’m left speechless. Where does this hateful obsession end? What are you trying to build besides fear? Immigrants were a part of your upbringing. Is this cruelty your way of rejecting a part of yourself?”
She also reminded him of the holocaust.
“Stephen, you and I both know what that means. We were raised with stories of survival. We learned about pogroms, ghettos, the Holocaust—not just as history, but as part of our identity. We carry the trauma of generations who were hunted, hated, expelled, murdered, just for existing. We were taught to remember. We celebrated holidays each year with the reminder to stand up and say “never again.” But what you are doing breaks that sacred promise. It breaks everything we were taught. How can you do to others what has been done to us? How can you wake up each day and repeat the cruelty that our people barely escaped from? We were taught to never forget where we came from. But you seem to have erased it all. And it devastates me. To be this close to the cruelty, through you, has left me ashamed and shattered.”