Jeff sessions

POLITICS 06/15/2018 07:04 pm ET “It goes against pretty much the entire Bible in the ethos of Jesus, and it’s deeply un-Christian.” By Jennifer Bendery WASHINGTON ― Attorney General Jeff Sessions seems to think Jesus would love his policy of separating immigrant families at the border. Christian leaders say otherwise. “While protecting our borders is important, we can and must do better as a government, and as a society, to find other ways to ensure that safety,” Cardinal Daniel Nicholas DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement. ”Separating babies from their mothers is not the answer and is immoral.” “Disgraceful,” the Rev. Franklin Graham, son of the late and influential Rev. Billy Graham and a supporter of President Donald Trump, said in a Tuesday interview. “It’s terrible to see families ripped apart, and I don’t support that one … [Read more...] about Christian Leaders To Jeff Sessions: The Bible Does Not Justify Separating Families

POLITICS 04/26/2018 01:25 pm ET But the attorney general’s plans come at a cost. By Roque Planas When Tim Purdon became U.S. attorney for North Dakota in 2010, he had a priority: improving public safety on the state’s four Indian reservations. Prosecuting violent crimes on Indian reservations falls to the Justice Department, and Purdon himself had worked similar cases as a public defender before taking on the U.S. attorney job. But when Purdon took office, he found that more than a third of his criminal caseload consisted of immigration prosecutions, even though North Dakota lies more than 1,000 miles from the border with Mexico. Despite the state’s proximity to Canada, the defendants were by and large Latin Americans who’d been caught in the U.S. after getting deported. The cases were easy to win. All prosecutors needed was to present paperwork proving the prior deportation. But the cases sapped time away from Purdon’s prosecutors, whom … [Read more...] about Jeff Sessions Wants To Make The Justice Department More Like ICE

POLITICS 05/17/2018 10:42 pm ET The attorney general ordered judges to stop administratively closing cases, whether they think it's best or not. By Elise Foley Attorney General Jeff Sessions used his office’s vast power over immigration courts on Thursday to curb immigration judges’ authority to administratively close cases. The order could dramatically increase the already record-high backlog that immigration courts are experiencing and encourage judges to issue swift removal orders for immigrants, even if they have a case to stay in the United States. Sessions forced the policy change by using the attorney general’s exceptional authority to overrule decisions of immigration judges ― an authority restricted to that type of court. The case Sessions announced on Thursday is one of three he referred to himself, and the first to be decided. All three cases could have far-reaching consequences for the immigration system, raising fears among … [Read more...] about Jeff Sessions Uses Exceptional Power Over Immigration Courts To Limit Judges’ Authority

POLITICS 05/30/2018 09:01 am ET Updated 46 minutes ago Ouch. By Hayley Miller President Donald Trump on Wednesday threw Attorney General Jeff Sessions under the bus again, tweeting that he wished he had picked someone else to lead the Justice Department.  Trump referred to Rep. Trey Gowdy’s (R-S.C.) Wednesday appearance on “CBS This Morning,” in which he defended the president’s frustration with Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the Russia probe. “I would be frustrated, too,” Trump quoted Gowdy as saying. “There are lots of really good lawyers in the country, he could have picked somebody else!” Trump added: “And I wish I did!” Rep.Trey Gowdy, “I don’t think so, I think what the President is doing is expressing frustration that Attorney General Sessions should have shared these reasons for recusal before he took the job, not afterward. If I were the President and I picked … [Read more...] about Donald Trump Says He Wishes He Hadn’t Picked Jeff Sessions As Attorney General

POLITICS 06/19/2018 02:19 am ET "Well, it's a real exaggeration, of course," the attorney general said of the comparisons. By Nick Visser Attorney General Jeff Sessions rejected claims that the Justice Department’s new zero-tolerance immigration policy echoed Nazi Germany because concentration camps “were trying to keep Jews from leaving.” Sessions spoke with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Monday and defended his agency amid a growing outcry over family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border under the new DOJ policy. Last week, the Department of Homeland Security said nearly 2,000 children had been separated from their parents over a six-week period ending in May. Many of these children are being held in juvenile detention centers. Sessions said comparisons of those centers to the Nazis camps wasn’t fair because the Justice Department was simply trying to deter people from crossing the border, not keep them in the U.S. “Well, it’s … [Read more...] about Jeff Sessions: DOJ Not Like The Nazis Because They Were Trying To Keep ‘Jews From Leaving’