Sen. Sessions: Zuckerberg 'Doesn't Get to Dictate' Immigration Reform Agenda

On Friday, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) said Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg “doesn’t get to dictate” to Congress and Americans what they should do regarding comprehensive immigration reform and a pathway to citizenship.

Sessions has warned the House to “be on alert” for immigration reform shenanigans after President Barack Obama suggested this week that he would not mind if comprehensive immigration reform was split into five pieces so long as all five pass. In his appearance on the Laura Ingraham Show, the senator emphasized the devastating impact on working class Americans that the comprehensive immigration bill would have. 

Sessions said he was troubled by House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) declaration on Thursday that immigration reform was “absolutely not” dead. He was also concerned about Boehner’s comments that he was “encouraged” by Obama’s remarks, which Sessions said meant Boehner was supportive of the pieces of the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform bill that the Congressional Budget Office determined would lower the wages of working class Americans. 

Sessions, who has been the staunchest opponent of comprehensive immigration reform in defense of working-class Americans, said that Zuckerberg has said he expects “every one of our leaders” to pass comprehensive immigration reform and emphasized, “he doesn’t get to dictate” that. 

“We need to remember we work for the American people,” Sessions said, noting that Zuckerberg is doing “pretty well” with his $2 billion income, while “millions of Americans are not.” Sessions said big-business interests have claimed there is a shortage of labor even though wages of Americans are going down. Sessions and Ingraham agreed that big-businesses interests just want more imported labor to reduce the wages even more of working class Americans.