When I was reporting my @NewYorker profile of Stephen Miller, months before the Covid crisis, the overwhelming sense among WH & DHS sources was that Trump Admin was gearing up for SCOTUS to end DACA this summer, & Trump wld use that outcome to attack Dems on immigration till Nov. https://twitter.com/jdawsey1/status/1252653463214985220

It's impossible to know what will happen at SCOTUS, though the justices have just allowed additional briefing on the case (owing to new uncertainties related to the pandemic). Regardless, the current crisis has seemed to rob Trump & Miller of their main campaign script. 2/

This latest anti-immigration gambit--high on rhetoric and bluster, low on detail--feels very much like a re-purposing of the script the WH expected to be able to use. It's the same message, re-sized to fit a world undone by pandemic. In some ways it's an easier note for Trump. 3/

On scare tactics & fear mongering, he's had a lot of practice and (in his eyes and the eyes of Miller et al) a proven track record. end/