Below is a reaction from Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice, on the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to be Attorney General for the Trump Administration.
Another day, another example of how President-elect Trump is filling the most powerful cabinet positions and senior White House posts in his Administration with white nationalists and anti-immigrant zealots. Senator Sessions is the most anti-immigrant Senator in the chamber. He has opposed sensible immigration proposals with incendiary language, consorts with hardline nativist groups and strongly supported the Alabama state immigration law that intentionally forced tens of thousands of Latinos out of the state – before a 2012 Supreme Court decision held such state laws to be unconstitutional.
When Sessions was nominated to serve as a federal judge some three decades ago, the U.S. Senate rejected him. Senators from both parties cited his racist comments, hostility towards civil rights groups and a temperament considered unworthy of a federal judge. He then was elected to the Senate by the people of Alabama. But being elected to the Senate by a popular vote is one thing; being confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be the nation’s top enforcer of the nation’s civil rights laws is another. The Senate should do what the Senate did 30 years ago and reject his nomination.
America needs an Attorney General that will defend all Americans. From his record, it is clear that immigrants, minorities and LGBTQ Americans cannot count on Sessions to defend their rights. Senate Democrats and sensible Republicans have an opportunity to take a stand for an America that is multi-ethnic in composition and committed to equal protection under the law for all of us. And that means making sure that Jeff Sessions is denied the critically important job of Attorney General of the United States. We will be watching closely and fighting fiercely to see that the Senate does not go easy on a colleague when so much is at stake.
More information on Senator Session’s record of hate and racism is available here.
