Public Profiles: U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-GA)

In this series, I will examine prominent and influential members of the public and their impact on immigration reform. First up is United States Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III of Alabama.

U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama.

Jeff Sessions was born in 1946 in Selma, Alabama to American parents of English ancestry. As long and well settled Americans, the Sessions were far removed from their immigrant roots. It's unlikely that young Jeff Sessions knew too many immigrants growing up, given that he was brought up at the tail end of the era of racial segregation, which was especially pronounced in his native deep south state of Alabama.

Many years later, then U.S. Attorney Sessions, he was nominated by President Reagan to be judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama. His nomination ultimately failed when allegations of racist comments by Sessions came to light. He was alleged to have stated that civil rights organizations such as the NAACP and the ACLU were "un-American," "communist-inspired" and "forced civil rights down the throats of people."

U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions.

It was alleged that Sessions had stated he thought the Ku Klux Klan was "OK until I found out they smoked pot." Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Figures, testified that Sessions had indicated reluctance to try civil rights cases and expressed wishes to decline them all.

When prodded, Sessions admitted to being "loose tongued" but that he "meant no harm by it." Consequently, he became only the second nominee to the federal judiciary in the preceding 48 years who was not confirmed by the Senate. Ironically, a decade later, Sessions was elected to the US Senate from Alabama.


Since the majority of modern day immigrants are not white, and Senator Sessions has a known history of racial prejudice against non-white minorities, it is not surprising that he has been the most anti-immigrant member of Congress. He has close ties with an umbrella of anti-immigration organizations, which include NumbersUSA, the Center for Immigration Studies and the Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform (by reform they mean elimination). These organizations contribute money to his campaign and routinely offer him absurdly named accolades to commemorate his anti-immigrant stances. One such title bestowed by NumbersUSA on Senator Sessions is "the No. 1 champion for the American workers on immigration issues." He is also the No. 1 reason for families breaking up all over America, but I doubt there is an award for that.

In 2007, the last time comprehensive immigration reform was attempted, he quickly became the leader of the effort to kill any chance of reform. He likened the reform bill, which was substantially similar to the 1986 and the current 2013 bill, to a "Terrorist Assistance and Facilitation Act of 2007." He lamented for the poor legal immigrant who suffers patiently under the weight of our broken system who would be unjustly linejumped by immigrants already here. Of course, on any other day Sessions couldn't summon any empathy for the legal immigrants, whom his cohorts at at NumbersUSA, CIS and FAIR want to restrict as well. But whats a few feigned sympathies between extremist exclusionists?

How many bills has Session put forth for the "people following the law" he cares so deeply about? Not one.

In 2010, Senator Sessions voted against the DREAM Act, a law that would give legal status to children who were involuntarily brought to the United States.

Senator Sessions vendetta against immigrants extends beyond the federal legislature. In 2011, his home state enacted HB 56, a law allowing racial profiling targeting Hispanics suspected of being undocumented. Following the passage of the law, more than 2000 children missed school due to being too terrified to attend. When asked, Senator Sessions implied they brought it upon themselves.

In 2013, he is again shaping up to be the leader of the effort against reform. On the very day the bill was introduced in the Senate, Senator Sessions held an alternate press conference with a coalition of anti-reform figures to galvanize opposition to the reform bill.

On April 17, Sessions' chief Counsel, Danielle Curtona sent categorically false information about reform bill to conservative activists, who then ran with it on talk radio to sour public opinion on the reform effort.

Later in the week, on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he is a member, Senator Sessions had called in the same openly anti-immigration figures that were present at his press conference as witnesses to testify before the committee about their opinions on the supposed adverse effects of immigration.

We're in for some very ugly sessions.

In the coming weeks, Senator Sessions will pull every trick he knows to prevent reform from becoming reality. He is expected to offer "poison pill" amendments (proposed changes to the law designed to make it unappealing to others). He is also expected to filibuster the bill on the floor of the Senate, and to cast it, once again, as a bill that terrorists will exploit. He will undoubtedly attend public and private meetings to sour public support for reform.