By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
On Friday United States Senator Jeff Sessions (R) from Alabama responded to the decision by President Barack H Obama, (D) from Illinois to halt deportations of youthful illegal aliens by executive order. Sen. Sessions is the ranking Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sen. Session responded to the unprecedented unilateral action by the President. The Presidential Executive order gives youthful immigrants a two year stay to remain in the country and allows them to apply for work visas.
Sen. Sessions said, “This mass backdoor amnesty is not limited to children: individuals who assert they are under thirty are eligible for work authorization and legal status. And while the administration purports that applicants for amnesty must have entered the country prior to the age of 16, it is a completely unenforceable and unverifiable standard.”
Sen. Sessions said that the President’s amnesty will only encourage more illegal immigration. “The border remains unsecure; this amnesty will not solve the underlying problem but simply lead to the next call for amnesty and the next after that.”
“Presidents do not have the luxury of choosing which laws to enforce and which to discard; upholding the rule of law is the shared duty of all administrations and an essential, distinguishing feature of American democracy,” Sessions said. “With its announcement today, the Obama administration has openly declared to the American people that it is determined to contravene the immigration laws of the United States, circumventing the will of the people and authority of its representatives in Congress.”
President Obama said in his remarks Friday, “It makes no sense to expel talented young people, who, for all intents and purposes, are Americans — they’ve been raised as Americans; understand themselves to be part of this country.” “Now, let’s be clear — this is not amnesty, this is not immunity. This is not a path to citizenship. It’s not a permanent fix. This is a temporary stop gap measure that lets us focus our resources wisely while giving a degree of relief and hope to talented, driven, patriotic young people. It is the right thing to do.” President Obama refused to answer a question from a reporter who asked What President ‘What about American workers who are unemployed while you import foreigners?’ The unemployment rate is 8.2% and the President is awarding 800,000 plus illegal aliens with legal residency in this country.
Senator Sessions disputed the Whitehouse’s 800,000 number. Sen. Sessions said the President’s plan, “Will have a dramatic and adverse effect on ordinary enforcement activities. Thousands of simple deportation proceedings will be converted into prolonged trials over the age of entry. The administration has no plan, and will not attempt any serious effort, to prove when a person actually entered the United States and at what age. Clearly, a 40 year-old could, with a few documents, fraudulently assert they were thirty years old and were brought to the US at age 15. Practically, there is no effective way to dispute such a claim. This action, at bottom, is a prosecutorial policy not to enforce plain law.”
The President demanded that Congress pass the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act), which Democratic lawmakers have been pushing to legalize youthful illegal aliens and place them all on a path to American citizenship. Pres. Obama said that the DREAM Act, “says that if your parents brought you here as a child, if you’ve been here for five years, and you’re willing to go to college or serve in our military, you can one day earn your citizenship. And I have said time and time and time again to Congress that, send me the DREAM Act, put it on my desk, and I will sign it right away.”
Senator Jefferson Beauregard “Jeff” Sessions III has been a staunch opponent of the DREAM Act.
To read Sen. Sessions remarks in their entirety:
