http://youtu.be/FbjsvEjXLgo
(Video above: Sen. Jeff Sessions questions AG nominee Loretta Lynch during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing)
“Who has more right to a job in this country: a lawful immigrant who’s here, a green card holder, or a citizen, or a person who entered the country unlawfully?”
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Wednesday posed that simple question to President Obama’s Attorney General Nominee Loretta Lynch during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to consider her nomination. It was an expected line of questioning from Sessions, who said last year that the Senate should reject any proposed replacement for current AG Eric Holder who supports the President’s immigration policies.
But even if the question was predictable, the answer was not.
“Well Senator, I believe the right and obligation to work is shared by everyone in this country, regardless of how they came here,” Lynch calmly replied.
In a single sentence, Lynch, by freely admitting she believes illegal immigrants have just as much of a right to American jobs as do U.S. Citizens, made immigration the central issue of her nomination. That, in turn, increases Sessions’ profile during the process.
Shortly after the hearing concluded, Sessions came out hard against Lynch’s nomination.
Unfortunately, when asked today whether she found the President’s actions to be ‘legal and constitutional,’ Ms. Lynch said that she did. I therefore am unable to support her nomination.
My concerns are furthered by Ms. Lynch’s unambiguous declaration that ‘the right and the obligation to work is one that’s shared by everyone in this country regardless of how they came here…
Such a notion of civil rights, as Civil Rights Commission Member Peter Kirsanow articulated, is “incoherent and ahistorical.” Essential to civil rights is the equal and uniform application of the laws. When the President capriciously suspends those laws and provides benefits to people here unlawfully, he injures the rights of lawful workers—denying them the protections Congress passed to secure their jobs and wages.
We are at a dangerous moment. Professor Jonathan Turley described it as a “constitutional tipping point.” For the Senate to approve this nomination would bring us another step closer to the point’s edge.
Sessions appeared on Fox News Wednesday night and added that he believes there is “some chance” that Lynch will not be confirmed, which is not abnormal for AG nominees.
According to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight, “Attorney general nominees are by far the most likely to face serious resistance” when compared to other presidential appointments that require senate confirmation.
Sessions said that he is specifically looking for a nominee who adheres to the rule of law, particularly when it comes to the nation’s borders.
“We need someone at the Department of Justice who will restore fidelity to our national laws and boundaries,” he said. “No Senator should vote to confirm anyone to this position who does not firmly reject the President’s planned executive amnesty—or any other scheme to circumvent our nation’s immigration laws—and who does not pledge to serve the laws and people of the United States.”
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— Cliff Sims (@Cliff_Sims) December 3, 2014
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