Sessions: Trump Plan Is Doing ‘What Politicians Have Been Promising’ For 30 Years

Senator Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) declared that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s immigration plan is “a mainstream plan to do what politicians have been promising to do for 30 years” on Monday’s “Kelly File” on the Fox News Channel.

Sessions said of the plan, which he consulted with Trump on, “Basically, Shannon, it’s just a mainstream plan to do what politicians have been promising to do for 30 years, and haven’t done. These are things like, you have, end the jobs magnet by not allowing people who are here legally to get jobs. You strengthen border enforcement. You stop the visa overstays. Almost half, maybe more now, of illegal entries into the United States are people who come on visas and overstay. These are things that he talks about in his plan that are bread and butter, basic, and need to be done. And if we do them, we’ll be surprised how dramatically we can reduce the illegality. And in addition to that, we need to create an immigration system that serves the interests of the American people. People are hurting today, wages are down. Jobs are down. So, we’ve got to be concerned about them, and making sure that Americans are given the opportunity to get valuable jobs first.”

Sessions was then asked if he believes Trump’s ideas can get passed by Congress. He responded, “you don’t have to pass a lot of laws. Some smart legislation would help, no doubt about it. And I think if a president is elected on the promise to fix this border, and illegality, the American people will insist that reasonable laws get passed. But, basically, utilizing existing law, we can make huge differences, and reduce this illegality, and create a system that serves the national interest. President Obama is just flat-out refusing to enforce basic law, that’s been on the books, sometimes, for a decade.”

Sessions concluded by answering a question on whether H-1B visa reform can be accomplished stating, “I think we’ve already got bipartisan support that would support a plan like Trump’s to fix this H-1B program. And you’ve got to know, one thing I like about his plan, that he emphasizes how this unlawful flow, huge flow of immigration is hammering poor people, African-Americans, Hispanics who are here, struggling to get a higher wage and a better promotion at work. This — they are getting hurt by current law, and I think he’s correct to say we can help them if we do it right.”

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