Attorney General Jeff Sessions praised President Trump’s 70-point list of immigration priorities, calling them a “reasonable and effective” way to ending “the lawlessness” of illegal immigration and cheap, foreign labor programs.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sessions said the United States was moving in the right direction, specifically if Trump’s pro-American immigration priorities were put into law.
“We can end the lawlessness. Legislation is essential,” Sessions said. “President has set out a reasonable and effective plan with numerous immigration priorities for this body to consider, including a border wall, significant asylum reform, swift border returns and enhanced interior enforcement.”
“With the progress already achieved, our country is on its way, and whether it’s an end to sanctuary city policies or an e-verification system to ensure lawful employment, they are supported by the vast majority of Americans,” Sessions said.
Trump’s immigration priorities include:
- The construction of a border wall
- Deporting unaccompanied alien children who are not at-risk in their native country
- Preventing criminal illegal aliens and gang members from receiving immigration benefits
- Mandating E-Verify, which weeds out illegal aliens from taking U.S. jobs
- Eliminating the diversity visa lottery
- Classifying overstaying a visa as a “misdemeanor”
- Restricting certain federal grants to sanctuary cities, which refuse to detain criminal illegal aliens
- Ending family-based chain migration, thus halving current legal immigration levels
- Enacting a merit-based legal immigration where only qualified immigrants can enter the U.S.
Under Sessions’ direction, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has made historic gains for American workers by fighting against the cheap, foreign labor industry.
For instance, as Breitbart Texas reported, in the first-ever case brought under Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” executive order, Sessions is suing a Colorado corporation for discriminating against Americans, and instead hiring foreign workers through the H-2A visa program. Sessions said in a statement:
In the spirit of President Trump’s Executive Order on Buy American and Hire American, the Department of Justice will not tolerate employers who discriminate against U.S. workers because of a desire to hire temporary foreign visa holders. The Justice Department will enforce the Immigration and Nationality Act in order to protect U.S. workers as they are the very backbone of our communities and our economy. Where there is a job available, U.S. workers should have a chance at it before we bring in workers from abroad.
In 2016, according to the DOJ, Crop Production discriminated against at least three American workers in El Campo, Texas, by refusing to give them jobs in seasonal positions. The company instead awarded those jobs to imported foreign workers who came to the U.S. on the H-2A visa program.
The DOJ also says Crop Production hit American workers with tougher job requirements than they did foreign workers on H-2A visas in order to discourage Americans from taking jobs at the company’s Texas facility. According to the DOJ, American workers were forced to complete background checks and drug tests, while the imported foreign workers were allowed to begin working before completing either of the job requirements.
The DOJ complaint alleges that Crop Production refused to hire an American worker who had limited English-speaking abilities and instead hired foreign H-2A workers who did not speak any English. Crop Production gave all of its U.S. jobs in 2016 to foreign H-2A workers, rather than Americans.