Jeff Sessions in Trump Cabinet members actions and issues
On Immigration:
DACA program was created without proper authority
The Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration's attempt to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program that protects immigrants brought to the US as children from deportation. After Trump came into office, Attorney General
Jeff Sessions announced the program had been created "without proper authority" and only after Congress had rejected proposed legislation. The following day, DHS announced DACA would be phased out, pointing out that it had "legal and constitutional
defects."
Months later, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen issued a new memo laying out more policy-based justifications for winding down the program. She said, for example, that the program increased the risk of undermining public
confidence in the rule of law.
Federal courts said the administration had acted arbitrarily when phasing out the program. The courts pointed to the administration's thin justification--reasoning Roberts and the Supreme Court eventually agreed with.
Source: CNN on Trump Cabinet / 2020 SCOTUS rulings
Jun 18, 2020
On Civil Rights:
1986: Lost appointment for racially insensitive comments
After law school, Sessions joined the U.S. Army Reserve (1973--86), rising to the rank of captain. He practiced law in Russellville and then Mobile before becoming an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Alabama (1975--77). In 1981 Pres.
Ronald Reagan appointed him U.S. attorney for the same region, and Sessions served in that post until 1993. He was nominated for a seat on the U.S. District Court in 1986, but the Senate Judiciary Committee did not advance the nomination for a vote
after it was claimed that he had made racially insensitive comments, among other allegations. In 1994 Sessions was elected attorney general of the state of Alabama, and he took office the following year. In 1996 he won a race for a seat in the
U.S. Senate. He entered the Senate in 1997, marking the first time since Reconstruction that two Republican senators from Alabama had served concurrently.
Source: Britannica Encyclopedia for Trump Cabinet biographies
Dec 31, 2018
On Corporations:
Establishment conservative: opposed 2008 bank bailouts
Sessions was considered a conservative, though one allied with the "establishment" wing of the Republican Party and its Senate membership. He distinguished himself as a sharp critic of federal spending programs, and he strongly supported the tax cuts
enacted during the presidency of George W. Bush. He broke with the administration and party leadership, however, over the emergency stabilization, or "bailout," of leading banks in 2008, arguing that it was a violation of the separation of powers, and
he later voted against the Bush administration's economic stimulus programs.Sessions' relationship with Trump grew increasingly strained as the president criticized both his recusal from the Russia probe and his refusal to investigate Democrats,
especially Hillary Clinton. Trump's dissatisfaction led to growing speculation that Sessions would be fired, and, a day after the midterm elections in November 2018, the attorney general tendered his immediate resignation at the request of Trump.
Source: Britannica Encyclopedia for Trump Cabinet biographies
Dec 31, 2018
On Immigration:
Asylum was never meant to alleviate world's problems
Jeff Sessions wants to restore to America the "sound principles of asylum" and long-standing tenets of immigration law, abandoned by American leaders over the decades. "Asylum was never meant to alleviate all problems--even all serious problems--that
people face every day all over the world," reasoned Sessions.Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV): "Attorney General Sessions continues to betray every American value of compassion, justice and respect for the rule of law. This is not who America is."
Source: WorldNetDaily e-zine on Trump Cabinet
Jun 14, 2018
Page last updated: Dec 03, 2021