On Thursday evening, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) had a chance to stand with American workers and against amnesty by voting with Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to kill the Senate’s border funding bill, which would not prevent President Barack Obama from unilaterally granting temporary amnesty and work permits to millions of illegal immigrants.
While Alexander has been claiming to be against amnesty, he was nowhere to be found on the Senate floor just a week before his August 7th primary against Joe Carr for a decisive vote against a bill that threatened America’s sovereignty.
“Tonight, the moment of truth came, and when the opportunity to stand with Sens. Jeff Sessions and Ted Cruz came, Lamar Alexander was nowhere to be found. With our national sovereignty on the line, Lamar Alexander skipped tonight’s decisive Senate vote,” Carr said in a Thursday statement. “Where was Tennessee’s voice tonight on the floor of the United States Senate? What was Lamar Alexander doing that was so much more important than representing Tennessee on the Senate floor during this monumental vote?”
Carr, a state representative who has been the architect of some of the country’s toughest immigration laws, has been hammering Alexander for voting for the Senate’s comprehensive amnesty bill last year, even after law enforcement officials warned Alexander that it would exacerbate the border crisis. Alexander, however, has refused to debate Carr on these issues and explain his vote, claiming that he has to be in Washington to debate the country’s most pressing issues.
After Alexander did not go to the Senate floor to debate or oppose legislation that Sessions said would allow Obama to effectively nullify federal immigration laws and “end immigration enforcement in America,” Carr called Alexander out.
“For months, Lamar Alexander has avoided participating in any public debates in Tennessee, using the excuse that he debates ‘every day on the Senate floor,'” Carr said. “Well, in the culmination of a confrontation between conservatives and Harry Reid and Barack Obama, Lamar Alexander went MIA.”
Earlier this week, Sessions said Congress was entering a “critical” hour that “will define the scope of executive and congressional powers for years to come.”
“If President Obama is not stopped in this action, and he exceeds his powers by attempting to execute such a massive amnesty contrary to law, the moral authority for any immigration henceforth will be eviscerated,” he asserted.
Sessions said every lawmaker in Congress will have a chance to make a stand to try to prevent Obama from enacting more lawless executive amnesty. He asked his colleagues, “Will we answer that call? Where will history record each of us stood at this important time?”
Alexander’s critics have argued that his refusal to answer the call or take a stand are reasons for him to be ousted next week.
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