Jeff Sessions's New Immigration Order Creates Panic Among Complacent DOJ Attorneys

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, left, shakes hands with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers as he tours the U.S.-Mexico border, Tuesday, April 11, 2017, in Nogales, Ariz. Sessions announced making immigration enforcement a key Justice Department priority, saying he will speed up deportations of immigrants in the country illegally who were convicted of federal crimes. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Because of the press of events over the past three days, this story didn’t get the coverage it really deserved. On Tuesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions was in Nogales, AZ, speaking to CBP personnel. The main thing the media glommed onto was this:

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Here, along our nation’s southwest border, is ground zero in this fight. Here, under the Arizona sun, ranchers work the land to make an honest living, and law-abiding citizens seek to provide for their families.

But it is also here, along this border, that transnational gangs like MS-13 and international cartels flood our country with drugs and leave death and violence in their wake. And it is here that criminal aliens and the coyotes and the document-forgers seek to overthrow our system of lawful immigration.

Let’s stop here for a minute. When we talk about MS-13 and the cartels, what do we mean? We mean criminal organizations that turn cities and suburbs into warzones, that rape and kill innocent citizens and who profit by smuggling poison and other human beings across our borders. Depravity and violence are their calling cards, including brutal machete attacks and beheadings.

It is here, on this sliver of land, where we first take our stand against this filth.

This instantly became “Sessions calls immigrants filth.”

The real story is much more dramatic. Sessions issued new prosecution guidance to the US Attorneys along the southern border:

To that end, the President and I want to do our best to arm you, and the prosecutors who partner with you, with more tools in your fight against criminal aliens. So today, I am pleased to stand here with you and announce new guidance regarding our commitment to criminal immigration enforcement. As we speak, I am issuing a document to all federal prosecutors that mandates the prioritization of such enforcement.

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Starting today, federal prosecutors are now required to consider for prosecution all of the following offenses:

  • The transportation or harboring of aliens. As you know too well, this is a booming business down here. No more. We are going to shut down and jail those who have been profiting off this lawlessness — people smuggling gang members across the border, helping convicted criminals re-enter this country and preying on those who don’t know how dangerous the journey can be.
  • Further, where an alien has unlawfully entered the country, which is a misdemeanor, that alien will now be charged with a felony if they unlawfully enter or attempt enter a second time and certain aggravating circumstances are present.
  • Also, aliens that illegally re-enter the country after prior removal will be referred for felony prosecution — and a priority will be given to such offenses, especially where indicators of gang affiliation, a risk to public safety or criminal history are present.
  • Fourth: where possible, prosecutors are directed to charge criminal aliens with document fraud and aggravated identity theft — the latter carrying a two-year mandatory minimum sentence.
  • Finally, and perhaps most importantly: I have directed that all 94 U.S. Attorneys Offices make the prosecution of assault on a federal law enforcement officer — that’s all of you — a top priority. If someone dares to assault one of our folks in the line of duty, they will do federal time for it.

To ensure that these priorities are implemented, starting today, each U.S. Attorney’s Office, whether on the border or interior, will designate an Assistant United States Attorney as the Border Security Coordinator for their District. It will be this experienced prosecutor’s job to coordinate the criminal immigration enforcement response for their respective offices.

For those that continue to seek improper and illegal entry into this country, be forewarned: This is a new era. This is the Trump era. The lawlessness, the abdication of the duty to enforce our immigration laws and the catch and release practices of old are over.

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Some of the weak sisters in the crowd complained to the Daily Beast for an article headlined Prosecutor: Jeff Sessions’s New Immigration Plan Is ‘F*cking Horrifying’

One veteran federal prosecutor told The Daily Beast these changes are a 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.”

Others welcome it. John Huber, the U.S. attorney for Utah, told The Daily Beast his office has already been doing much of what Sessions called for—especially prosecutions related to people entering the U.S. illegally after previously being deported—but that he expects to bring more harboring prosecutions to comply with the guidance. That would include people who drive vans full of undocumented immigrants across the border and into Utah looking for work, he said.

“That’s the type of case we may see here, where you have someone transporting a vehicle full of unlawful immigrants,” he said. “We will go after the people who are transporting them, organizing, and coordinating that trip, bringing aliens into our country.”

Sessions made clear that the new crackdown won’t exempt parents of U.S. citizens.

“Will there be any mercy or latitude in prosecuting people who have U.S.-born children who are minors here?” one reporter asked.
Sessions didn’t blink.

“We want everybody to comply with the law,” he said. “And because a child or a family member enters the United States lawfully doesn’t mean that others can enter the country unlawfully. So we do have that challenge. We want people to understand that they’re not entitled to enter unlawfully. We want people to know that laws will be followed, and hopefully if we send this message—it’s already seeming to have an impact—we’ll be able to return to the kind of system we can be proud of.”

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Read Huber’s statement carefully. Do you know who else will be subject to “harboring” charges? Employers with three or more illegals on their workforce?

Sessions is very serious about using existing federal laws to break the back of the incentives racket that attracts illegals to the United States. If our presidents had been doing this from the beginning, Donald Trump would not have been able to run based on building a wall on the southern border.

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