The rest of the world is learning something we’ve known for awhile: Alabama Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions is extremely and obsessively anti-immigrant. And his behavior being noticed. During the mark-up of the Senate’s “Gang of 8” bill, Sessions has stood out – often on his own.
Dana Milbank at the Washington Post wrote:
Not since George Wallace, perhaps, has an Alabamian taken as passionate a stand for a lost cause as the one Jeff Sessions is taking now.
Strong words. Milbank was being none too subtle with a George Wallace reference. He continued:
Bipartisan immigration legislation is making its way inexorably through the Senate Judiciary Committee. Although its ultimate fate is unclear, its passage by the committee is assured, and conservatives on the panel such as ranking Republican Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and Orrin Hatch (Utah) are doing what they can to improve the bill. Even firebrands such as Ted Cruz (Tex.) and Mike Lee (Utah) are holding fire.
Then there’s Sessions. The wiry Southerner is on a one-man crusade to undo the compromise drafted by the Gang of Eight (four of whom, two Democrats and two Republicans, are colleagues on the committee).
And, then there’s Sessions – who appears intent on leading the GOP off a demographic cliff. Sessions’ anti-immigrant fervor landed him an interview with ABC News, too:
When it comes to immigration reform, perhaps no senator has been more vocal about their displeasure with the newest bill, drafted by the group of bipartisan senators known as the “Gang of Eight,” than Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)–the Republican many blame for the defeat of the last immigration reform bill in 2008.
“This bill, written by the ‘Gang of Eight,’ without public process, that stacked in the committee and determined to move it through with little or no changes, it,” Sessions said.
Here’s the immigrant-rights group Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Rights, which protested against Sessions (their home-state Senator) today and presented him with a George Wallace award:
Sessions is once again the face of the GOP’s opposition to immigration reform. And he’s zealous about it.
We’ve got much more on Sessions, his support for self-deportation, and his ties to the John Tanton network of anti-immigrant groups here. Sessions won’t stop immigration reform–but he’s sure going to make the job of the person leading GOP outreach to Latinos and other immigrant communities an awful lot harder.
