Senate Budget Committee ranking member Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) praised House Republicans late Friday evening for standing strong on immigration and warned Democrats in Congress that they will be held accountable for supporting amnesty for illegal aliens.
“I applaud the hard work of House Republicans in putting together this package, and in particular would like to recognize the steadfast and unflinching efforts from members of our Alabama delegation,” Sessions said in a statement provided exclusively to Breitbart News. “The border bill has been substantially improved, and provides a marked contrast to the Senate Democrat bill–defeated on a bipartisan basis–that only perpetuated the crisis.”
Sessions’s praise comes after much turmoil in the House of Representatives over the past few weeks as Speaker John Boehner tried but failed to pass a supplemental appropriations bill on the border crisis that critics said didn’t address the root cause of the border crisis: President Barack Obama’s prior and planned executive amnesties. The House leadership pulled a bill late Thursday that critics like Sessions and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), as well as a core group of House conservatives, excoriated after Boehner and his new leadership team couldn’t get the votes to pass it. Afterwards, Boehner worked with members like Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and Michele Bachmann (R-MN) to improve the bill–fixing its flaws and focusing the package on stopping Obama’s planned executive amnesty. Then the House GOP conference coalesced around the new bill package and passed them both.
“Most importantly, the House has taken a firm vote today to block the President’s plan to provide unlawful executive amnesty and work permits to 5-6 million illegal immigrants,” Sessions said in his statement to Breitbart News. “They have again acted to protect U.S. workers. President Obama’s suspension of immigration law created this crisis and his new plan, if implemented, would escalate that crisis to an unimaginable degree.”
However, Sessions said, all Senate Democrats except for Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) have acted in favor of allowing Obama to continue with his executive amnesty. On Thursday, all Senate Republicans and Manchin voted for a Sessions motion that ended up killing the Senate Democrats’ supplemental appropriations bill on the border crisis, a vote Sessions framed as one that delineated members’ stances on the President’s planned executive amnesty.
“While the Republican House has voted to protect our constituents and our constitution, Senate Democrats have abandoned both in the face of this clear and present danger,” Sessions said. “Indeed, last night, all Senate Democrats except one voted to thwart the Republican effort to stop the President’s illegal actions. All but one Democrat voted with their Senate leader instead of the people who sent them here.”
Sessions added that the fight in the Senate is “only beginning” and called on Senate Democrats to join him, all Senate Republicans, and Manchin in opposing Obama’s planned executive amnesty–or be “held to account.”
“Now that the House has passed this measure to block the President’s unlawful actions, we will demand that every Senate Democrat be held to account,” Sessions said. “We will fight, and keep fighting, for its passage. I appeal tonight to all Americans: ask your Senator where they stand on President Obama’s executive amnesty. Ask them where they stand on protecting unemployed citizens from a plan which will give work permits and jobs to millions of illegal workers.”
Sessions concluded by highlighting the significance of the decision ahead for U.S. senators from both parties. “Senators face a time for choosing: to be complicit in the nullification of our laws, or to end this lawlessness and create an immigration policy we can be proud of,” Sessions said. “Mr. Reid: you and every single member of your conference will face this choice. On the defining issue of our nation’s laws and sovereignty, there is nowhere to hide.”
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