Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Wednesday that the Trump administration had been supportive of his efforts ramp up the fight against unauthorized border crossings and undocumented immigration.
Radio host Laura Ingraham asked Sessions during an interview, surfaced by CNN, about stories of a rift between a more moderate wing of the President Donald Trump’s White House, reportedly led by son-in-law Jared Kushner, and a populist nationalist wing, led by chief strategist Steve Bannon. In an interview published Tuesday, Trump dodged a question about whether Bannon still had his confidence.
“What is your take on how the Trump agenda could be imperiled if, in fact, Steve Bannon ends up out of the White House, given the other influences in the White House today?” Ingraham asked.
“I’m an admirer of Steve Bannon and the Trump family, and they’ve been supportive of what we’re doing,” Sessions responded. “I’ve not felt any pushback against me on anything I’ve done or advocated, and I believe everybody, virtually both parties, believes that we should end the illegality at this border and get it fixed.”
Pressed about the West Wing’s specific support for his agenda, Sessions said “the President shares the view.”
“He’s still insisting we’re gonna build this wall and he’s not backing down from it. He’s supported me and Homeland Security in stepping up our enforcement at the border 100 percent, and we’re carrying out his agenda, and I think that’s shared throughout the White House, and I don’t believe anybody’s going to object to that.”
On Tuesday, Sessions announced new requirements for federal prosecutors to consider in immigration cases, including prioritizing the prosecution of cases involving “unlawful transportation or harboring of aliens.”
He also told prosecutors to consider felony charges against defendants with prior misdemeanor improper entry convictions, or in other select cases, and to establish “border security coordinators” to work with Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Citizenship and Immigration Services.
In a speech announcing the changes in Nogales, Arizona, Sessions also said that the Department of Justice would hire more immigration judges, in part by streamlining the hiring process, in order to deal with the uptick in immigration cases.
“It’s fucking horrifying,” an unnamed federal prosecutor told the Daily Beast of the announced changes. “It’s totally horrifying and we’re all terrified about it, and we don’t know what to do.”
