Senator Jeff Sessions at center of border clash
Posted on Tuesday, August 15 @ 15:46:51 EDT
Topic: congress senate illegal Immigration Laws
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 WASHINGTON -- When it comes to immigration, few people on Capitol Hill are as passionate as Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions. At the height of the congressional debate over immigration last spring, the Republican from Mobile dominated the Senate floor, arguing against a proposed new guest worker program and for tougher enforcement of immigration laws.
Topics: illegal immigration, senate, congress, senator Jeff Sessions, Alabama, amnesty, Guest Worker, Republican
8/14/2006
By Ana Radelat
Montgomery Advertiser
On at least one evening, he made his arguments -- bolstered by charts that aimed to prove the weaknesses of former attempts to reform immigration policies -- to an empty Senate chamber.
"I just believe we should create a lawful system of immigration," said Sessions, a former U.S. attorney.
Sessions lost that fight when the Senate passed the bill he opposed. But he has won several other battles, and he's likely to be at the center of any attempt to push a final immigration bill through both the House and the Senate in the fall.
Session's latest victory was securing $1.8 billion to create a 350-mile border fence along the Rio Grande. The money was included Aug. 2 in a massive defense-spending bill Congress is expected to approve when it returns from its recess in September.
The fence would be built in California, Texas, Arizona or New Mexico -- the states that border Mexico. Its exact location hasn't been determined yet.
"It will be a demonstration that the border is no longer open," Sessions said of the fence, one of his most significant legislative accomplishments.
Sessions said a border fence in San Diego is credited with reducing the numbers of crossings in the area. But critics said San Diego's fence simply forced migrants to cross the Rio Grande elsewhere. A new fence would have the same effect, they said.
"(A new fence) is basically irrelevant," said Doug Rivlin, spokesman for the National Immigration Forum, an immigrant advocacy group. "It won't do anything, but it will raise the cost of smuggling and encourage unsafe crossings."
Sessions said the solution to that is to build more fences, no matter the cost.
On the immigration issue, Sessions has more in common with Republicans in the House than with his colleagues in the Senate. In December, House Republicans won approval of a tough, enforcement-only immigration bill. Senators approved a very different bill in May that would establish a new guest worker program.
Promoted by President Bush, the Senate plan would allow many of the estimated 12 million undocumented workers in the United States a chance to apply for temporary legal status. Some eventually would be allowed to apply for permanent residency, which can lead to citizenship.
"The president has gone overboard on this issue," said Sessions, usually a Bush loyalist.
The House and Senate must reconcile differences between the two bills this fall, a task Sessions and others say is impossible.
"It's not likely that we will pass a comprehensive bill," Sessions said.
Sessions also was the driving force for a state program that allows local law enforcement officials to detain undocumented workers identified during routine police work. The senator wants to extend the program from coast to coast.
In Alabama, 44 state troopers have been specially trained to enforce federal immigration law and another 18 are currently in training. There have been fewer than 200 detentions under the program since it was initiated in October 2003.
Alabama has a relatively small number of illegal migrants. A Pew Hispanic Center study estimated there were 20,000 to 35,000 in a population of more than 4.5 million.
But Sessions has plenty of company in the Alabama delegation when it comes to a hard-line stance on immigration.
Rivlin said it's not unusual that Alabama's lawmakers have taken such a tough line against undocumented workers. He noted that the state's small immigrant community has little political strength and immigrants are more likely to create concern in places not accustomed to them.
"The fewer immigrants a state has, the more likely a lawmaker is anti-immigrant because there are few consequences," Rivlin said.
Michele Waslin, immigration policy director at the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic advocacy group, said Sessions has tapped into the distrust some people have for newcomers.
"I think there's some fear (immigrants) would change the culture and makeup of the state," Waslin said.
Isabel Rubio, executive director of the Birmingham-based Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama, said Sessions has shown more fervor on the immigration issue than another federal lawmaker from Alabama.
"We don't know why he is so intense on immigration," she said. "But politicians are always looking for ways to keep their names in front of their constituents, and this is a hot-button issue."
Sessions' approach is lauded by Jim Zeigler, head of Conservative Christians of Alabama. The Mobile-based group staunchly opposes increases in immigration and is trying to persuade the Huntsville City Council to approve an ordinance that would punish those who hire undocumented workers.
Zeigler doubts the low estimates of illegal immigrants in Alabama, saying he sees "Latino-looking" people in substantial numbers in small towns across the state.
"Our supporters are extremely concerned that there's a huge invasion going on across America's borders, especially the Mexican border," he said. "Some of our supporters want to draft Sessions for president in 2008."
Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that seeks tougher immigration laws, also praises Sessions' role.
"He's driven by convictions," Mehlman said.
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