Sessions: Executive Amnesty Will Make Immigration Enforcement 'Almost Impossible'

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) said that under President Obama’s proposed executive amnesty plan will have “no enforcement will occur,” and the law “will be the effective end of immigration enforcement in America,” and “make it difficult, almost impossible to enforce the law.”

Sessions related conversations with Immigration and Customs Enforcement President Chris Crane on the impact of the president’s earlier executive amnesty. Sessions reported that he learned “the president’s previous executive amnesty for the so-called Dreamers basically halted enforcement for anyone who asserted protections under that new administration policy” from Crane. 

And “Mr. Crane would report that ICE officers would come into contact with individuals unlawfully present in the country, individuals they would encounter in prisons and jails…and they would be forced to release them simply because they assert ‘I came here as a youth,’ and nobody is going to do an investigation on this.”

“You can now imagine then what would happen if the president expands this amnesty and work authorization program to cover millions of unlawful immigrants of all ages. Everyone ICE comes in contact with will assert these protections…and a claim in any failed application will say they are eligible for this immigration, this amnesty” Sessions predicted.  

He then argued that there will be no investigation into false amnesty claims, stating, “Will the FBI open investigations, check when they entered the country or who they entered the country with and where they came from? They’re not going to do that. Of course not, the officers are going to be totally unable to resist false claims from applicants, the people they have arrested. It’s going to demoralize immigration [enforcement]. ICE officers will again be issued orders basically to stand down, no enforcement is going to occur. It will be the effective end of immigration enforcement in America, in my opinion.”

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