Jeff Sessions Defends Zero Tolerance: ‘Perfectly Legitimate, Moral, and Decent’

Attorney General Jeff Sessions defended the Trump administration’s controversial zero-tolerance policy while speaking to an incoming class of immigration judges Monday, labeling it “perfectly legitimate, moral and decent.” Sessions told the 46 prospective judges that “no great and prosperous nation can have both a generous welfare system and great prosperity, and open borders. Such a policy is radical, it’s dangerous, it’s never been adopted here, or any other major nation that I am aware of, so it must be rejected out of hand, and the American people have done so,” according to a report from NBC News.

Sessions also spoke in support of excluding gang and domestic violence victims from obtaining asylum, arguing that victims abused the system under Obama. “We all know that a lot of those crossing our borders are leaving a difficult life,” Sessions said, while noting that “asylum was never meant to provide escape from all the problems people face every day around the world.” He also argued that a tougher stance on immigration is necessary to deter large numbers of migrants, stating, “The world will know what our rules are, and great numbers will no longer undertake a dangerous journey.”