In response to David Hyde’s Jan. 27 letter, “Just who is Stephen Miller?,” I hope to add to his offerings of Stephen Miller’s motives of perhaps hate? Governing by fear? Need for power? So here’s my take: follow the money. 

What America has learned from war is that it makes a lot of rich people richer, i.e., recall Halliburton and Bechtel? So, the current leaders say they want to avoid war but then how can they add to their coffers? “We’ll build detention centers, round up the mostly innocents and mostly of darker skin, and the few guilty of crimes and shove them in.” This is where Miller comes in because he’s a proponent of aggressive immigration enforcement agencies that benefit private companies like GEO Group (on the NYSE, it’s listed as GEO) and is a leading American and global private prison system. Prison executives are reveling in profiting off ICE and so are stockholders in GEO. 

I was happy to see that towns in Maine are opposing the building of these centers. Another way to protest is to learn if any of our investments are linked to GEO: our bank, college, church or credit card. If so, urge them to divest. 

Portia Miles Smith
Oakland