Though many in the mainstream media have declared the congressional push for an immigration reform package dead, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) warned Americans on Sunday evening that they should be on the lookout for a renewed push from amnesty supporters in Congress.
Sessions’ warning came during an interview on Breitbart News Sunday with Stephen K. Bannon on Sirius/XM Patriot Channel 125 on Sunday evening. When Bannon asked if “people should be lulled to sleep” if the mainstream media and political establishment keeps saying immigration is dead until this time around until 2015 or 2017, Sessions responded they should not back down.
“They should remain highly alert,” Sessions responded. “I think there’s still a lot of talk out there that they will try to move a bill this year, after maybe saying it’s dead, getting people’s eyes off that issue, and then boom, have it pop right back up and slip through.”
Sessions points to how “Gang of Eight” member Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has recently written about being on the phone working to lobby for some form of amnesty. “The Chamber of Commerce is on the phone,” Sessions added. “Mark Zuckerberg has been meeting with Republican and Democratic leaders, all pushing this legislation. They’ll run more ads, I suppose.”
“They’re raising money to promote these issues, so I think we’re not out of the woods yet. I think there very well could be an attempt to move a comprehensive bill before this year is out,” he claimed. “And if so, it’s likely to be a very bad bill, unfortunately.”
When Bannon asked earlier in the interview about how members of the Senate’s Gang of Eight, President Barack Obama, and others who support amnesty do not talk about the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said illegal immigration would drop under the Gang of Eight bill plan at best by 50 percent of current levels, Sessions described a campaign-style marketing machine pro-amnesty forces have cobbled together to drive for the unpopular policy. That heavy lobbying machine, Sessions argued, is why amnesty even still has a shot in Washington, and why Americans should be on guard.
“They’ve got a sales pitch,” Sessions said. “This is a sophisticated, organized, political-like campaign to promote this vision of comprehensive immigration reform and they do not want to talk about the details. That’s just absolutely clear throughout.”
“And when you talk about do the American people know they’re going to more than double the number of low-skilled workers that would come into the country at a time of persistently high unemployment, and a low percentage of people in the workplace? No, they don’t want to talk about that,” he explained. “They want to talk about the emotional issues that we need to address.”
“But we need to make sure that when this thing is over, that we’ve got legislation when it passes that will actually work, create a lawful system of immigration that we can be proud of and the people that we allow into the country that is going to be a large number are the kind of people that are going to be successful in America and be able to enrich America as well as themselves,” Sessions stated.
Sessions appeared on the show to discuss an op-ed he and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) wrote for Breitbart News in which they argued House leaders could kill amnesty once and for all by coming out in public opposition to a conference committee with the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” legislation.
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