Sessions defends Trump’s immigration policies
RENO, NEV. — While hundreds of protesters rallied outside, Attorney General Jeff Sessions defended the Trump administration’s immigration policies Monday in a speech, calling on Congress to act and asserting that many children were brought to the border by violent gang members.
Speaking at a school-safety conference in Nevada, Sessions said the crisis at the border is a “difficult and frustrating situation” that requires Congress to act.
“Children have indeed borne much of the burden of our broken immigration system,” he told the National Association of School Resource Officers in Reno.
The compassionate thing to do, he said, is to protect children from violence and drugs, put criminals in jail and secure borders.
He called the alternative, having open borders, “both radical and dangerous.”
Outside the hotel-casino where he spoke, more than 200 protesters opposed to the administration’s immigration policies blocked a busy road.
The demonstrators — a coalition of civil rights, religious and union activists — carried signs and drums and were joined by a mariachi band. Some sat in a busy roadway for while police diverted traffic around them.
The protesters chanted, “Jeff Sessions, you can’t hide. Reno sees your ugly side!” Several carried signs that read “Children are not political” and “Impeach the mad king.”
At least a half-dozen people wearing red arm bands said they intended to get arrested.
The Rev. Karen Foster of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship said American children are taught to pledge allegiance to the flag “with liberty and justice for all.”
She said “there is no justice for thousands of children locked in cages” at the border.
Nearly two dozen Nevada groups tried unsuccessfully last week to persuade the national school law enforcement group hosting the conference to withdraw its invitation to Sessions.
On Sunday, more than 30 immigrant parents separated from their children after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border were freed into the care of a Texas charitable organization, the group said, but the parents don’t know where their kids are or when they might see them again.