(Video above: Sen. Jeff Sessions appears on CBS’s “Face the Nation”)
WASHINGTON — Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) responded to criticism of Donald J. Trump’s call to conduct “extreme vetting” of anyone seeking to gain entry into the United States, insisting that non-U.S. citizens “do not have a constitutional right to demand entry into the country.”
Mr. Trump told Hispanic leaders late last week he would craft a “humane and efficient” way to deal with the estimated 11 million illegal immigrant workers currently in the country. Sessions, who would likely be on the short-list for Homeland Security Secretary in a Trump administration, said Mr. Trump is “wrestling” with that issue, but reasserted that it would come second to securing the border.
“First and foremost he has made clear that we would end the illegality, fix our border and secure it,” he said. “And then we’ll have to think about what’s the right thing to do. He listened to a lot of people. I don’t think he made any commitments; he’s thinking that through. And that’s the right thing. He is absolutely committed to the first thing that has to be done and that’s to end the lawlessness, to protect Americans from danger and to protect American jobs from excessive flows of labor that pull down wages and job opportunities for Americans.”
Sen. Sessions also told CBS Face the Nation host John Dickerson that the Trump campaign’s National Security Advisory Committee is discussing how to handle refugee and immigration requests from “dangerous areas of the globe.”
“We had a big group of national security experts presided over by Rudy Giuliani and he listened intently to various ideas about this,” Sen. Sessions explained. “Most of these [individuals who have launched recent terrorist attacks on American soil] were either first generation refugees and immigrants, or their children. So it does increase the likelihood of an attack if you bring in more people from those dangerous areas of the globe. The American people clearly support an idea that if you can’t vet somebody from a dangerous area of the globe then they should not be brought into the U.S. You do not have a constitutional right to demand entry into the country. We should admit those who make America a better place and have a chance to flourish here, do well and love America.”
Asked if he has discussed with Mr. Trump “some kind of a test” for refugees or immigrants seeking entry into the country, Sen. Sessions said he had not.
“But [we have discussed] the idea that you ask people about their understanding of what a good government is,” he added. “If you have two people: One that believes in a democratic republic like we have, and one that has the ideology that wants to impose a narrow view of how the government should be run — a theocracy, then why would you not choose the one that’s most harmonious with our values? I think we can ask some of those questions. We have to be careful. We should talk to our lawyers and think it through carefully, but there is no doubt we can ask certain questions, as we have for decades, of people before they are admitted to our country.”
These questions would not, however, apply to U.S. citizens.
“You can’t do that for a citizen,” said Sen. Sessions. “Once you get citizenship you’re just like anybody else and you have every right of an American, no matter how you came here. Once you get that citizenship you have equal rights with every American. But if you’re applying to come then you of course can be evaluated differently.”
(h/t CBS)
