Jeff Sessions promotes “law and order,” condemns Colorado sanctuary cities during Denver visit

It cannot be acceptable in the United States, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Friday in Denver, that an undocumented person can cross the U.S.-Mexico border on a Monday, only to make his or her way to so-called sanctuary cities like Boulder, Denver and Aurora by midweek.

“What if they’re bringing six ounces of cocaine with them?” Sessions said to the crowd at the annual Western Conservative Summit toward the end of an afternoon keynote that was, in general, heavy on talk of “law and order” and the various ways he and his boss, President Donald Trump, feel they’ve helped restore that ideal.

Sessions, addressing a gigantic, cavernous ballroom at the Colorado Convention Center, drew his loudest applause with the line: “We back the blue. Not the criminals.”

He told the crowd that “in this Trump era,” American law and policy will not be set by the ACLU, but rather by “the professionals.”

What the ACLU and other organizations and figures of the anti-Trump resistance fail to recognize, Sessions argued during a roughly 30-minute speech, is that the U.S. already is the most generous country in the world to immigrants.

“We simply want a fair system,” he said, before sharing his view of how unfair it is that people enter the country illegally and find places like Denver waiting to greet them.

He did not address the separation of immigrant children and parents that his Department of Justice has overseen, nor did he speak in much detail about marijuana, the legalization of which he opposes.

He did, however, give a shout out to Lakewood baker Jack Phillips, who prevailed in this week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case. Phillips refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, citing his religious faith. The court ruled that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had wrongfully displayed hostility toward Phillip’s faith, denying him a fair, neutral hearing.

Sessions called Phillips “courageous.”

“I’m proud for him,” he added.

In the afternoon speaker period, prior to the talk from Sessions, Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Robinson, among others, addressed the ballroom crowd.

Robinson talked about the need he sees for lane widening on I-25, and took a question about how Colorado can stem heroin abuse among young people.

“We need more mental health (care), but we also need to get God back into the schools,” Robinson responded. “We can do more, I think, and also get ‘em off drugs.”

Robinson and all three of his Republican opponents in the primary – Walker Stapleton, Victor Mitchell and Greg Lopez – were on the schedule for the two-day Summit, an annual conference that’s billed as the largest conservative gathering outside Washington, D.C., and organized by the Centennial Institute and Colorado Christian University. Stapleton spoke Friday morning, while Mitchell and Lopez are slated to speak Saturday.

 

Photo by Gage Skidmore via Flickr/Creative Commons. Attorney General Jeff Sessions addressed the Western Conservative Summit on Friday in Denver.

 

4 COMMENTS

  1. Sessions’ characterization of a “sanctuary city” is simply, flatly, wrong. Boulder’s stance “refuses to comply with federal authorities by questioning, detaining or turning over people on the basis of immigration status.”

    If someone comes to a city and is known to have 6 ounces of cocaine, they would be arrested. Chances of a bust of that size not attracting at least passing attention from state and federal law enforcement so they would at least come and talk, finding out if there could be intelligence to be gathered on other drug trafficking, seems minimal.

  2. Significant Gains To Immigration Reform would Save Taxpayers Billions ++

    The legal status to citizenship for the unauthorized immigrants have brought about *significant economic gains in terms of growth, earnings, tax revenues, and jobs.*.
    ___The idea that they just drain our resources here is a M Y T H.
    __ Immigrants like any citizen contributes in purchasing goods and services, paying taxes, which in turn creates more jobs and more opportunities.

    Today’s Immigrants are no different than the the great wave of Irish Immigrants between 1820-1860 . As a result, the Irish arrival constituted 1/3rd of the population here in the USA.

    In 2014, Texas Comptroller Susan Combs stated, “Without the undocumented population, Texas’ work force would decrease by 6.3 percent” and Texas’ gross state product would decrease by 2.1 percent.

    The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy 2016 Study showed …

    “1) Undocumented immigrants contribute about $11.6 billion to the US economy annually, which includes
    ____ $7 billion in sales and excise taxes
    ____ $3.6 billion in property taxes.

    2) Undocumented Immigrants economically productive citizens

    3) Undocumented workers pay a higher effective tax rate than the top 1 percent income bracket.

    Research has repeatedly shown that native-born workers are advantaged by the presence of immigrant workers in the labor market.”

    Cited by the American Immigration Council,
    “A new report from the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) finds that immigrants have no negative effect on the unemployment rate or labor force participation rate of native-born Americans.

    Even less-educated native-born workers are not harmed by immigration, while the labor force participation rate of more-educated native-born workers increases as immigration rises. (2017 Report on American Immigration Council dot org – Immigration Impact) “

    WHAT Costs Taxpayers is Billions on Deportation and Enforcement.

    American Immigration Council states that “billions of our Taxpayer dollars are wasted on Immigration Enforcement without Reform. For instance, they cited that U.S. Border Patrol grew from $1.5 billion in FY 2003 to $3 billion in FY 2010.”

    *!* Under Trump, costs have skyrocketed.

    In July 2017, The Hill report “The mounting costs of nationwide immigration enforcement” states
    ….. “the federal 287(g) program authorizes local law enforcement to carry out immigration enforcement
    ___ BUT “the federal funds available don’t come close to covering the full cost of participation.“

    Consider these examples (same report)
    __ “Alamance County, which is seriously considering re-joining the [Federal] program, previously, built a $12 million jail expansion to accommodate for the growth.
    ___Maricopa County, in Arizona, accumulated $43 million in litigation costs, in death and abuse lawsuits, before their partnership ultimately ended with the Federal Program.
    ___Harris County, Texas, ended its agreement with ICE in February of 2017 after facing $1 million in overtime costs every two weeks during the partnership.
    ___In all these cases, the burden fell heavily on local taxpayers and communities, as federal funding largely doesn’t cover these hidden costs.”

    Another independent report – “Raising the Floor for American Workers: The Economic Benefits of Comprehensive Immigration Reform,” by Dr. Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda, can be found on the American Immigration Council dot org
    Dr. Hinojosa-Ojeda’s Findings:
    * “Comprehensive immigration reform that includes a legalization program for unauthorized immigrants and enables a future flow of legal workers would result in a large economic benefit—a cumulative $1.5 trillion in added U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years.

    * In stark contrast, a deportation- only policy would result in a loss of $2.6 trillion in GDP over 10 years (2010).

    * The higher earning power of newly legalized workers would mean increased tax revenues of $4.5-$5.4 billion in the first three years.”

    Once we have the facts, Immigration Reform is the least expensive and most beneficial policy for us all. Lets work together to insure the financial well being of American Workers and the immigrants that contribute to so much more than we realize.

  3. When will politicians and people in general figure out that when you reward illegal immigration with jobs, amnesty, drivers licenses, discounts for college tuition, scholarships encourages MORE illegal entry.. Illegal immigration negativity effects our economy from employment to use public services. Just debating this in congress is costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars….. thank the parents. Another concern is the real “immigrants” who have waited in line? The “dreamers” don’t care about them, but we as a country should.

    We have over 800,000 “dreamers” (authorized illegal aliens) and probably another 2 million non DACA illegals in our country taking jobs. These are jobs American citizens have lost or are in competition for.They are not all picking strawberries as the MSM / Democrats would like you to believe. Nor are they “children” or “kids. (another MSM / Dem deception.)

    Another myth, America is not splitting up families, that decision is theirs. I don’t know how these dreamers can wave goodbye to their parents being deported but they do so every day. Its ALL about them. Selfish.

    With over 100,000 veterans homeless you would think that would be a priority Not so.

    Just some of the costs associated with illegal immigration, we will pass this burden on to our children and grand children as has been passed on to us.

    *The cost of educating illegal aliens children is staggering. From K-12 it costs taxpayers $122,000 for EACH illegal alien student. This does not include the billions spent on bilingual education for illegal aliens.

    *Currently city, and state officials are appropriating millions of taxpayer dollarsfor legal fees to to file law suits and in defense of illegal aliens being deported.

    *2012 illegal aliens sent home $62 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin. This is why Mexico is getting involved in our politics.

    *30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.Does not include local jails and State Prisons. At $21,000 per year expense per inmate in Federal Prison U do the math.

    *$3Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens, I repeat 3 MILLIONa DAY to process Illegals in the Criminal justice system.

    *$2.2Billion dollars a year is spent on is spent on food assistance programs such asSNAP (food stamps) WIC, & free school lunches.All can be found on google.

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