Government
The War on Immigrants Just Escalated
But the "new era" of draconian enforcement that Jeff Sessions just announced is based on faulty assumptions about criminality and immigration.
Even for an administration that has made anti-immigrant rhetoric routine, the speech that Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave on Tuesday was shocking in both tone and content.
Sessions was ostensibly announcing a set of tough new measures targeting gangs, which he described as “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.” But in practice, these measures apply to almost everyone without papers. And that’s not by accident. “For those that continue to seek improper and illegal entry into this country, be forewarned: This is a new era,” Sessions said. “This is the Trump era.”