FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 18, 2016

CONTACT
Juan Gastelum, gastelum@nilc-ijf.org, 213-375-3149

WASHINGTON — News outlets have reported that President-elect Donald Trump will appoint Senator Jeff Sessions to be the nation’s 84th attorney general. The attorney general oversees the Department of Justice, of which several federal law enforcement agencies are a part. The Executive Office for Immigration Review, which administers the immigration courts, is also an agency within the Justice Department. The current attorney general is Loretta Lynch.

Sessions has a documented history of making racist remarks, and recently he opposed the latest version of the Violence Against Women Act due to the protections it extended to undocumented women and lesbians who had been abused. Sessions has ardently opposed immigration, under the pretense of protecting the interests of American workers.

Below is a statement from Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center Immigrant Justice Fund. Hincapié wrote an op-ed last year about Sessions’ disingenuous comments about the American worker.

“The position of attorney general is the most important protector of our hard-fought civil rights. Those who make flattering remarks about the KKK, even supposedly in jest, have no business being appointed to protect the rights of Americans.

“Under Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions has been pushed from the fringe into the center of American politics. As a result, women, immigrants, the Black community, the LGBTQ community, and anyone who cares about justice and equality for all are being pushed out. This most recent appointment should send chills down the spines of all Americans.

“We must all stand together to defend our Constitution and all communities. We vigorously oppose this appointment and urge the Senate to swiftly reject Sessions, whose extremist views threaten to roll back the clock on civil rights for all.”

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