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A veteran federal prosecutor called Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ white nationalist speech at the U.S./Mexico border yesterday—where the alleged perjurer promised to use the full weight of his Justice Department to criminalize immigrant families as part of Donald Trump’s national mass deportation effort—“fucking horrifying:”
All federal prosecutors, Sessions said in his slow Alabama drawl, must now consider bringing cases against people suspected of the “transportation or harboring of aliens.” Those prosecutors must also look to bring more felony prosecutions against some immigrants who illegally enter the country more than once and should charge immigrants with document fraud—which includes using a made-up Social Security number—and aggravated identity theft when they can.
One veteran federal prosecutor told The Daily Beast these changes are generating significant concern.
“It’s fucking horrifying,” the prosecutor said. “It’s totally horrifying and we’re all terrified about it, and we don’t know what to do.
“The things they want us to do are so horrifying—they want to do harboring cases of three or more people,” the prosecutor continued. “So if you’re illegal and you bring your family over, then you’re harboring your kid and your wife, and you can go to jail.”
One Fox News host later commented that “it sounded a lot like fugitive slave laws to me, quite frankly.” Not to mention the fact that Donald Trump wants to falsely accuse undocumented immigrants of being welfare-loving parasites, even though they “are ineligible for safety-net benefits.” But then he also wants to punish undocumented immigrants who are forced to use false or expired Social Security numbers so they can work and support their families, even though the taxes from those paychecks go to the federal government to the tune of $12 billion a year. Got it.
As The Daily Beast notes, Sessions had no qualms when asked if his department would reconsider or give extra consideration to any cases involving the undocumented immigrant parents of U.S. citizens, like Maribel, an Ohio mother of four American citizens (including two with special medical needs) who faces imminent deportation to Mexico despite being a taxpayer and having no criminal record:
“We want everybody to comply with the law. And because a child or a family member enters the United States lawfully doesn’t mean that others can enter the country unlawfully.”
Not only is this an intentionally cruel effort designed to make life as miserable as possible for immigrant families regardless of immigration status, but even Cato says it’s a waste of our resources (and remember, Trump already said there’s not enough money for Head Start, food programs, and cancer research):
“Every dollar spent on prosecuting an illegal immigrant for illegal reentry is a dollar that could have been spent on prosecuting or investigating a real crime,” said Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration expert at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute. “It’s a shame the government is prioritizing the enforcement of, essentially, labor market regulations over violent and property crimes.”
“It’s yet another example of the Trump Administration treating all immigrants as threats and as criminals,” immigrant rights leader Frank Sharry said in reaction yesterday. “This is the smokescreen they use to justify their efforts to deport millions, to keep people out of the country, and, ultimately, to try and remake the racial and ethnic composition of America.”