By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
BIRMINGHAM—U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R from Alabama) wrote in a statement to Politico, that not stopping President Obama from declaring a massive illegal alien amnesty would be a betrayal of the voters.
Senator Sessions said, “We cannot surrender Congress’ most powerful Constitutional tool before a single newly elected Republican is sworn-in. Acting in this manner would betray the very voters who gave us this majority before we’re even in possession of it.”
Sen. Sessions continued, “Consider RNC Chairman Reince Priebus’ pledge to voters on Executive amnesty: ‘It’s unconstitutional, illegal… It is un-American for a president to try and do such a thing…We will do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen… we can’t allow it to happen and we won’t let it happen. I don’t know how to be any stronger than that. I’m telling you, everything we can do to stop it we will.’”
Sen. Sessions said that even, “Karl Rove, who himself has advocated for amnesty, urged Congress to use its spending power to block the President’s fiat. He said Republicans should ‘use every tool available,’ and put ‘riders on appropriations bills that say no money shall be spent to execute this policy.’”
Sen. Sessions warned, “Reports have surfaced of plans to pass a long-term lame-duck spending bill through Harry Reid’s Senate that contains no such prohibition. This would be unthinkable…Obama’s immigration orders will have a crushing impact on the jobs, wages, schools, hospitals, police departments, and communities of our constituents. The consequences will be swift, profound, and catastrophic. Who will protect them, if not us?”
Despite the crushing setback that not even many Republican pollsters were predicting, a defiant President Obama has threatened to use Executive amnesty to give millions of illegal aliens legal status in this country while unilaterally using executive powers to open up the nation to even greater flows of legal immigrants.
Sen. Sessions warned, “A Republican Congress will defend itself and our citizens from these lawless actions. Surrendering to illegality is not an option. Democrats will have to choose sides: protect the President’s agenda, or protect your constituents.”
The Republican controlled U.S. House of Representatives have already passed a measure that would make any executive amnesty illegal, however Senate Democrats led by Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D from Nevada) have refused to even allow a vote on that bill. Republicans are asking Democrats to pass that measure during the lame duck session which would make illegal President Obama’s threatened unilateral actions on amnesty.
Sen. Sessions said, “The American people rebelled against the President’s Executive amnesty and rallied behind GOP candidates who promised to put the needs of the American people first. It is shocking then that the President would declare that the only way ‘those executive actions go away,’ is to ‘send me a bill that I can sign.’ Otherwise, the President warned, he would ‘act in the absence of action by Congress. Of course, Congress has acted, and so have the American people. Republicans, and the voters who sent us here, rejected the Obama-Democrat legislation to give work permits to illegal immigrants and to surge already-record immigration rates. The President cannot, having had his policies defeated at the ballot box, impose them through executive decree.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R from Kentucky) said that for the President to now unilaterally pass an executive amnesty for five to seven million illegal aliens would be like, “Waving a red flag in front of a bull.” “I hope he won’t do that, because I do think it poisons the well for the opportunity to address a very important domestic issue.” Democrats spent a small fortune targeting Sen. McConnell’s reelection.
Sen. Sessions is credited by many with lobbying enough resistance from both the public at large and within the House Republican Caucus to block the bipartisan Senate immigration reform bill in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Following his reelection, President Obama announced that his priorities for this Congress were the passage of strict new gun control laws and immigration reform. Senator Dianne Feinstein’s (D from California) Draconian gun control bill got weakened substantially before it ever came to the floor of the Senate. A number of Democrats however joined GOP colleagues including Sessions and Sen. Richard Shelby (R from Alabama) in blocking that weakened legislation. Gun control never resurfaced. Sessions and Shelby’s opposition to the immigration reform bill did not stop it from passing the U.S. Senate. Speaker of the House John Boehner’s (R from Ohio) support for some sort of immigration reform did not sway House Conservatives in his own party who have effectively blocked the legislation to this point. President Obama is threatening to act unilaterally if Congress does not cave in to his demands. Some Constitutional scholars question if the President even has that sort of authority under the law.
Senator Jefferson “Jeff” Beauregard Sessions III is the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and it is believed that the new Republican Senate Majority will elect Sessions to be the new Budget Chairman when the GOP takes control of the Senate in January. Sen. Sessions is also a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sen. Sessions was just elected to a new six year term by the people of Alabama. He had no opponent.
Sessions comments in Politico were provided by Sessions’ office. Some original reporting by the Associated Press and the Fox News Channel were included in this report.
