WASHINGTON -- Sen. Jeff Sessions and two other GOP senators want to prevent the U.S. Justice Department from suing states that pass their own immigration laws, including Alabama.

"The Justice Department needs to stop going after states that are taking steps in harmony with federal laws to see that our immigration laws actually are enforced and to help end the lawlessness," Sessions said in a press release today.
Along with Sens. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and David Vitter of Louisiana, Sessions is preparing legislation to block DOJ lawsuits like the one now pending against Alabama. The Justice Department is arguing that the enforcement of federal immigration laws is a federal responsibility and state laws interfere.
DeMint tried to pass a similar amendment last year to block the department's lawsuit against Arizona, but it failed a vote in the Senate. Sessions and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., voted for DeMint's amendment to block the lawsuit.
Sessions also this week asked a different federal agency to intervene against a local immigration policy approved by Cook County, Ill. That county is refusing to detain certain prisoners for extra time at the request of federal immigration authorities.
Sessions on Wednesday said he was asking that the federal government "consider taking action against Cook County and other local jurisdictions that purposefully and deliberately undermine the laws of the United States and offer sanctuary to illegal aliens who have broken our laws by entering the country illegally."



By Mary Orndorff -- The Birmingham News

http://blog.al.com/sweethome/2011/11/se ... block.html