{"id":561002,"date":"2018-04-11T20:29:12","date_gmt":"2018-04-12T02:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=561002"},"modified":"2018-04-11T20:29:42","modified_gmt":"2018-04-12T02:29:42","slug":"in-las-cruces-sessions-talks-up-tougher-immigration-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/04\/in-las-cruces-sessions-talks-up-tougher-immigration-efforts\/","title":{"rendered":"In Las Cruces, Sessions speaks about tougher immigration efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_561008\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheJusticeDept\/status\/984163253596061699\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-561008\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Sessions-771x286.jpg\" alt=\"Jeff Sessions\" width=\"771\" height=\"286\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Sessions-771x286.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Sessions-336x125.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Sessions-768x285.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Sessions-1170x434.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Sessions.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">U.S. Department of Justice photo<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, center, posing for a photo with members of the Southwestern Border Sheriff&#8217;s Association in Las Cruces on Wednesday, including Do\u00f1a Ana County Sheriff Enrique &#8220;Kiki&#8221; Vigil, sixth from right.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions outlined the Trump administration\u2019s immigration policies and enforcement plans while speaking at the Southwestern Border Sheriff\u2019s Coalition and the Texas Border Sheriff\u2019s Coalition spring conference in Las Cruces.<\/p>\n<p>Sessions reiterated pledges to increase prosecutions of those who enter the country illegally in an attempt to deter others from even attempting to enter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you break into our country, we will prosecute you,\u201d Sessions said.<\/p>\n<p>Sessions said that Trump \u201cexpects us to not just play around with this problem, but to fix it, and that\u2019s certainly my goal.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpoliticalreport.com\/824378\/in-las-cruces-sessions-talk-stricter-immigration-efforts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Mexico Political Report<\/a>,\u00a0a nonprofit news organization\u00a0focused on promoting a greater public understanding of politics and policy in the state of New Mexico.<\/p>\n<h3>The protest<\/h3>\n<p>Read about the people who gathered in Las Cruces to protest Sessions&#8217; visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lcsun-news.com\/story\/news\/local\/2018\/04\/11\/protest-jeff-sessions-las-cruces-visit\/504814002\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">from the Las Cruces Sun-News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>One way he said Trump would help solve illegal immigration is by building a border wall. He said the lack of such a wall was \u201can open invitation to illegal crossings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also praised the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in New Mexico, which he said \u201calready demonstrated its effectiveness over the last two years.\u201d He said the office\u2019s prosecutions of illegal crossings increased seven-fold from two years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Sessions described several so-called \u201cloopholes\u201d in the immigration process, including what he called a \u201ccredible fear loophole.\u201d He was referring to a longstanding U.S. policy that allows people who have a credible fear of persecution or torture in their home country to gain asylum admittance. The Trump administration recently made it more difficult for refugees to apply for asylum.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust because you have a danger in one town in Mexico or any other country doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t go to some other place in that country,\u201d Sessions said.<\/p>\n<p>By referring to the asylum policy as a loophole, Sessions was echoing far-right media, including sites like Breitbart and The Daily Wire. The Center for Immigration Studies, which argues for lower levels of all immigration including legal immigration,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cis.org\/Report\/Fraud-Credible-Fear-Process\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">has also written<\/a>\u00a0about this so-called loophole.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<i>Washington Post<\/i>\u00a0found last year that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/fact-checker\/wp\/2017\/10\/26\/sessionss-claim-that-dirty-immigration-lawyers-encourage-clients-to-cite-credible-fear\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a claim Sessions made about the credible fear process was not true<\/a>. One of the newspaper\u2019s fact checkers found that asylum applications because of \u201ccredible fear\u201d increased largely because of \u201cthe influx in people\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanprogress.org\/issues\/immigration\/news\/2016\/02\/24\/131645\/they-are-refugees-an-increasing-number-of-people-are-fleeing-violence-in-the-northern-triangle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fleeing violence, and human rights abuses<\/a>\u00a0in Central America\u2019s Northern Triangle \u2013 Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In Las Cruces on Wednesday, protesters greeted Sessions, waving signs that criticized the attorney general and opposed Trump\u2019s order to send National Guard troops to the border.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>And before the speech, U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham denounced Sessions\u2019 rhetoric.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am incredibly disappointed that of all the work that needs to be done and the investigations that need to be initiated and\/or completed, our U.S. Attorney General is spending his time trying to secure support for Trump\u2019s border wall,\u201d Lujan Grisham said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope New Mexicans will let Jeff Sessions know that they do not want to fund this border wall,&#8221; she said. &#8220;This is a wall that is unnecessary and a wall that is wasteful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A number of southern New Mexico officials, including state representatives, invited Sessions to speak to them about their border experiences, but Sessions declined.<\/p>\n<p>Sessions said that up to 4,000 troops would be headed to the U.S.-Mexico region to aid border enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>Sessions also made sure to praise Trump, who has reportedly been less-than pleased with the job Sessions has been doing as attorney general. He touted the \u201cTrump economy\u201d and said that wages increased by their highest rates in years.<\/p>\n<p>He said some business owners were \u201cwhining\u201d about having to pay higher wages to Americans rather than lower wages to immigrants. And he said this impacts recent immigrants and minorities.<\/p>\n<p>A better economy, Sessions said, could be one reason why there was an uptick in illegal crossings over the last month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThings are going well economically and people may be coming for that reason,\u201d Sessions said.<\/p>\n<p>Sessions toured the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in Albuquerque before the speech and said he would tour the Las Cruces office afterward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. attorney general outlined the Trump administration\u2019s immigration policies and enforcement plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":561008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140,3259,3654,145,116],"class_list":["post-561002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-drug-policy","tag-jeff-sessions","tag-las-cruces","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}