Angelica Salas: Too racist to be a federal judge in 1986, Jeff Sessions is still too racist in 2017

LOS ANGLES, CA, Jan. 9, 2017  – The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), the largest immigrant rights organization in California, did not mince words Monday to denounce Donal Trump’s nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions as the next Attorney General of the United States of America.  Session’s confirmation hearings start Tuesday.

In what is perhaps one of the most significant appointments in the Trump Administration, it is a disgrace that Senator Jeff Sessions, an unavowed extremist, has been tapped to lead our nation’s judicial system. Deemed too racist to be a federal judge in 1986, Jeff Sessions is still too racist in 2017 to be America’s next attorney general.

Senator Sessions has been an adamant supporter of extreme views on immigration, criminal justice, and civil liberties for the past two decades. Especially as it relates to people of color, women, and the LGBTQ community, Sessions’ staunch opposition to even basic reforms and protections makes him a threat to all Americans.

On immigration, Senator Sessions’ extensive record to criminalize, dehumanize, and tear apart immigrant families closely resembles the nativist, White nationalist, and racist rhetoric of the groups he is closely linked with, including NumbersUSA, FAIR, and the Center for Immigration Studies. There is nothing collegial or measured about Sessions’ xenophobic, racist, and anti-immigrant views.

Jeff Sessions’ vision of America is not one where diversity thrives.  His long opposition to the most basic, democratic principles in the vast, diverse union that is the United Sates makes him unfit to serve as senator and most certainly as the next Attorney General.