Speech #CREC-2017-02-06-pt3-PgS873-2_t4

These are his views as of last year. These are his current views on these matters. The Senator has a similarly out-of-step approach on immigration. Mr. Sessions was instrumental in defeating the 2007 immigration reform bill, referring to it as ``terrorist assistance.'' He was a strong opponent of a 2013 bipartisan immigration bill, even though the bill had the strongest border security provision ever seen in an immigration bill. It was such a strong security border provision that I hated it. I had to think about whether I was going to vote for this thing because I felt it was too much of a militarization of our southern border. I thought it was a giveaway and a waste of money. But it had a strong border security provision, and it was voted out of the Senate by a wide margin. If it were up to him, we would also limit legal immigrants coming to our country. During the markup in the Judiciary Committee, Senator Sessions offered an amendment to limit legal immigration, which failed 17 to 1. If you are wondering whether it is rhetorical to say his views on immigration are out of the mainstream, the record shows 17 to 1--17 to 1. In addition, he promotes cutting Federal funding for sanctuary cities. Sanctuary cities is a brand. People aren't sure what that means. Let's be clear what we mean by that. Stripping funding from sanctuary cities is wrong because cities have decided that the strength of their relationship between their police and their citizens is more important for public safety than doing the Federal Government's job of enforcing immigration laws. Senator Sessions, of course, is against the right of children born in the United States to be American citizens. He is against helping the many DREAMers in this country. Let's have an honest discussion about immigration. We need to start talking about why people come to this country. Some of them come because they want to escape their own awful circumstances and live in freedom and opportunity.