Thread: Sessions’ views on immigration, trade amplified by Trump

Mary Troyan, Gannett Washington Bureau 4:50 p.m. CDT September 11, 2015

WASHINGTON – Sen. Jeff Sessions hasn’t endorsed Donald Trump for president, but the Alabama Republican openly cheers the billionaire’s front-runner status as validation of his own hardline stances on immigration and trade.

Sessions’ role as an adviser to Trump’s campaign developed quickly. Trump released an immigration proposal in August that largely mirrors Sessions’ views. Days later, Sessions appeared with Trump at a huge campaign rally in Mobile, and the pair met again this week in Washington.

Both favor building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and doing more to deport those who cross the border without permission. Otherwise, Sessions argues, U.S. workers will lose jobs and wages will decline.

Trump’s immigration plan “was obviously received well around the country and has helped put him into the lead,” Sessions said in a Thursday interview on Capitol Hill.

Some Republicans worry such aggressive positions will alienate the growing number of Latino voters, but Sessions sees an opportunity to win votes from the working class.

“I think it’s good politics,” he said. “We have too many people in denial because they’ve spent too much time in fundraisers with rich people and they don’t deeply understand the pain of middle-class, salaried people now working 30 hours instead of 40 and not getting overtime, and wages haven’t gone up.”

Sessions said he’s unsure if he’ll endorse anyone in the 2016 Republican presidential field. He’s met with other candidates — including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum — and has applauded their immigration stances. And he’s open to meeting with other candidates and appearing with them when they campaign in Alabama, he said.

For now, the connection to Trump gives Sessions a wider audience to make his case that lower-income workers, especially those who preferred President Barack Obama over Republican Mitt Romney in 2012, can be brought into the GOP fold.
Donald Trump

“They’re ready and willing to defect but it takes somebody — and I don’t know if Trump is ultimately the right person — but he’s talking about the issues I’ve believed in for a long time,” Sessions said.

Trump said Sessions has been helpful to the campaign.

“He was the one person I sought his counsel,” Trump said when introducing Sessions at the Mobile rally. “Because he’s been so spot on. He’s so highly respected.”

Immigration advocates long opposed to Sessions’ views say his new-found association with Trump has raised the volume but not the substance of the immigration debate.

“Sen. Sessions’ ideas have been relegated to the margins of serious policy-making for a very, very long time,” said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, which opposes Trump’s plan. “It may be wonderful for Sen. Sessions to have Donald Trump be his mouthpiece, but from a policy perspective, these are marginal ideas at best and extreme ideas at worst.”

Sessions and Trump also share similar views on trade.

Earlier this year, Sessions invoked the plight of American workers when he broke with Republican leaders who helped give Obama “fast-track” authority to negotiate trade deals around the globe. Free trade, a staple of the Republican economic platform, can increase the trade deficit, destroy U.S. jobs and lower wages if not conducted fairly, Sessions said.

Trump’s campaign offers up a steady diet of complaints that other countries, especially China, are destroying the U.S. economy through unfair trade practices, and frequent promises that Trump would be a stronger negotiator.

Sessions said he believes Trump is popular, especially in Alabama, partly because he refuses to lean on wealthy special interests to help finance his campaign.

“I have been surprised by how many people in Alabama have expressed the view that Trump not needing money has freed him up to tell the truth,” Sessions said.

Sessions said he told Trump about how a relatively unknown state legislator from Tuscaloosa, Robert Bentley, surprisingly won the governor’s office after promising not to take a paycheck until Alabama’s unemployment rate dropped.

Many Republicans have bashed Trump as a showboating entertainer rather than a serious conservative, but Sessions isn’t among them.

“So I would say to those Republicans who are saying the only way we can win elections is get more and more moderate and not be combative and not speak out on issues that Americans care about — immigration and trade — (they) ought to be a little more humble in their political prognosticating,” he said.

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/...rump/72095058/

“Sen. Sessions’ ideas have been relegated to the margins of serious policy-making for a very, very long time,” said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, which opposes Trump’s plan. “It may be wonderful for Sen. Sessions to have Donald Trump be his mouthpiece, but from a policy perspective, these are marginal ideas at best and extreme ideas at worst.”

And just exactly what IS the "National Immigration Forum"?

National Immigration Forum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
National Immigration Forum Founded 1982
Focus Value of immigrants to America
Location

Washington, DC

Website http://www.immigrationforum.org

The National Immigration Forum (also called "The Forum") advocates for the value of immigrants and immigration to America. The Forum, based in Washington, DC, is one of the nation’s premier immigration policy organizations and has been at the center of every major legislative and policy debate related to immigration since its founding in 1982. The Forum uses its communications, advocacy and policy expertise to create a better, more welcoming America that treats all newcomers fairly and respects the rights of all.

The Forum is a powerful and key advocate on numerous immigration issues, working closely with business, law enforcement, faith and immigrant leadership across the country to advance reforms to our nation’s immigration system. It has gained accreditation from the Better Business Bureau[1] and earned a four-star rating from Charity Navigator.[2]

The National Immigration Forum has policy expertise and engages in communications outreach and coalition-building work with the goal of building consensus on the important role of immigrants and immigration to the United States. Ali Noorani has served as the Forum's executive director since 2008.

The Forum focuses on four main priorities: immigration reform and workforce needs, integration and citizenship, borders and interior enforcement, and state and local immigration developments (the Forum promotes the Constitutional principle that immigration law and enforcement are federal responsibilities).[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation...igration_Forum

Aaah, another 501 C 3 tax fraud "charity" promoting the interests and welfare of foreigners in the United States.

Now, isn't that such the silliest thing in the world? That US taxpayers pay more taxes or run up more debt so an outfit that represents foreign interests who want to come here and sign up for welfare and steal our jobs, can operate in the US as a tax-exempt "charity" run by Ali Noorani:

Biography

Noorani was born in California, the son of Pakistani immigrants. He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and received his Master’s in Public Health from Boston University. He then served as the Director of Public Health for the Dorchester House Multi-Service Center and Codman Square Health Center, two large community health centers in Boston, and worked for the City of Boston coordinating funding and technical assistance to regional environmental projects. Before joining the Forum, Noorani was Executive Director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Noorani

P. S. I don't think Sessions needs to endorse Trump or anyone else. It's probably better for him to stay neutral.