Speech #CREC-2017-02-06-pt2-PgS825_t4

It means the Justice Department may go to court and support continued State efforts to further and further restrict the rights of women to control their own reproductive system. The bottom line: I do not have confidence that Senator Sessions will fairly and independently safeguard the freedoms of the women of America. Let me move on to immigration. Senator Sessions has been the staunchest opponent of comprehensive immigration reform, preventing the passage of legislation to strengthen the border and prevent families from being torn apart. Senator Sessions opposed immigration reform so strenuously that he drafted and distributed his own book entitled ``Immigration Handbook for the New Republican Majority.'' This handbook implied that immigrants were taking jobs from low-income minorities and abusing public benefit programs--setting people against each other. More alarmingly, Senator Sessions voted at least twice against the DREAM Act, which seeks to protect some of our country's most vulnerable youth, undocumented individuals--children--who were brought here through no choice of their own. On President Obama's Executive action to protect those children-- known as DACA--he doesn't just oppose it. He is actively seeking to take it down. A recent Washington Post article says he is lobbying for the administration to overturn DACA. It is one thing to disagree on policy, but it is quite another when the policy could crush the lives of ordinary people. In December, I wrote an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle about the importance of DACA and what it means for Californians. I discussed the story of Denisse Rojas, brought to the United States as a 10-month-old baby. Rojas' family is similar to many families with mixed status.