WASHINGTON — Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, the upper chamber’s staunchest conservative on halting illegal immigration, hit back at the Obama administration for considering to send illegal alien minors to his home state.
“Our governor has spoken clearly on this. He opposes this. We don’t need to be spending all this money to carry out this twisted agenda under this administration, so I do oppose it, and we’ll see what happens but basically it will be up to the governor. I’ll be reviewing and see what action I might take,” Sessions told The Daily Caller Tuesday.
Alabama.com reported the Obama administration proposed to look at two rural “underutilized” Naval fields by Silverhill and Orange Beach as potential sites to house unaccompanied minors who come to the United States illegally.
Local officials believe the plan is retribution for Sessions’ stance against the administration’s lax immigration policies.
“It’s highly probable that this is more political than practical,” Baldwin County Commissioner Chris Elliott told Alabama.com.
“I hope that is not the case. The polls I’ve seen is Alabama is very conservative on the immigration issue. The federal government is not,” said Baldwin County Sheriff Huey Mack.
Sessions agreed, telling TheDC, “I would hope it’s not a personal shot at me, but I think it’s a definite indication that they’re searching all over the country to find housing for people who are unlawfully here and should for the most already been deported.”
Sessions added, “We had a border patrol association head testify last month in another hearing and he said he believed they caught about 50 percent of the people trying to enter the United States — border patrol does, illegally. They catch about half of them and of that, half they catch 80 percent are released in the country on some sort of bail or some sort of hearing.”