Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama is standing up against the Gang of Eight's Amnesty Bill and is to be applauded. As reported by Challen Stephens in Sessions Leading Opposition to Immigration Bill on Senate Floor (June 7, 2013)
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, spoke at length today on the Senate floor, leading the national opposition to the Gang of Eight immigration reforms. Sessions argued that amnesty would spawn more "lawlessness,", that the country needs improved border patrol and also needs to increase the number of deportations of people who arrive or stay in the country without authorization.
The senator also brought up the 1986 amnesty and said that "Enforcement never occurred..." and "This cannot happen again." The senator called "for deportations under existing law". Sessions pointed out that if illegal aliens are stopped for speeding in Alabama and are discovered to be illegals, they get released because nobody else takes them into custody.
And Senator Sessions pointed out something very important:
Sessions repeatedly claimed that virtually no one is being deported aside from convicted criminals.
That point should be repeated again and again so it sinks in with the public. Nowadays, an illegal has to try very hard to get deported.
The author of the article repeated the claim that "deportations are up under President Obama", however...
Sessions' office this afternoon responded to say that the current deportation numbers do not present a fair picture, that the statistics increasingly include numbers of people sent back at the border as opposed to interior apprehensions and deportations. A spokesman for Sessions pointed to a comment from President Obama. "The statistics are actually a little deceptive because what we've been doing is with stronger border enforcement we've been apprehending folks at the border and sending them back," said Obama on Sept. 28, 2011. "That is counted as a deportation, even though they may have only been held for a day or 48 hours, sent back — that's counted as a deportation."
As usual even with those who fight illegal immigration, however, Sessions felt obliged to declare his support of legal immigration:
"The people objecting to this legislation are not against immigration," he argued. "What we are trying to say is you need a good future flow for immigration and you need to be sure it's enforceable."
How I wish some senator or congressman would take the bull by the horns and call for a moratorium on legal immigration.
Still, kudos to Senator Sessions for fighting amnesty, doing more than most Republican senators. You might contact your own senators and hold up Sessions as a good example.