Trump Attorney General Pick Jeff Sessions Argued For A Religious Test To Ban Muslims
Less than a year ago Sen. Jeff Sessions argued in favor of using religion as a reason to ban immigrants from entering the US.
BETSY WOODRUFF
11.19.16 6:57 AM ET
Donald Trump’s attorney general pick, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, argued passionately that a Muslim ban needed to be an option, and publicly assailed the proposed ban’s critics during a Senate committee hearing late last year.
On Dec. 10, 2015, Sessions broke with most of his Republican Senate Judiciary Committee colleagues to vote against an amendment stating that the Senate would not create policies that discriminate based on religion. Of the committee’s 11 Republicans, 7––including John Cornyn, Chuck Grassley, and Mike Lee––voted for the amendment offer by Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy. But Sessions, joined by Ted Cruz and two other Republicans, voted against it. But Sessions didn’t stop there. The Alabama senator also gave a 30-minute speech to the committee room arguing that the federal government should be able to use whatever criteria it wants to decide who can and can’t immigrate to the U.S.––and that includes religion.
“The adoption of the Leahy Amendment would constitute a transformation of our immigration system,” Sessions said. “In effect, it is a move toward the ratification of the idea that global migration is a ‘human right,’ and a civil right, and that these so-called ‘immigrants’ rights’ must be supreme to the rights of sovereign nations to determine who can and cannot enter their borders.”
He also suggested that Leahy’s amendment would increase the risk of terrorism by making it harder to keep out radicals. “This amendment would mean, for instance, that the United States could not favor for entry the moderate Muslim cleric over the radical Muslim cleric,” he said.
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