Four Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted against a resolution calling on the United States to not bar individuals from entering based on their religion.
The measure in particular drew the ire of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala) who launched into a 25 minute-long speech that described “many” religions as “strange and dangerous cults and criminal organizations.”
“Many religions go broader than personal relationships with God. They include a belief in the ordering of government, of what the law should be and what public policy should be,” Sessions said.
He also said that domestic human rights considerations must not take priority when considering immigration law.
“Through acts of congress, the United States can and does exclude aliens from entering into the United States for a whole number of reasons. These rules governing the selection of immigrants are, by definition, opposite the rules governing the treatment of citizens living naturalized in the United States,” Sessions remarked.
Although the amendment was offered by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) as a rebuke of GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s call to ban Muslims, including US citizens, from entering the country, Sessions claimed otherwise.
“There’s nothing in the Leahy Amendment that mentions Islam or Trump. It is broad historic statement of policy that goes beyond what we’ve done before [and] misunderstands the situation,” he argued.
Leahy, however, was unmoved by Sessions’ long-winded analysis, saying “the bottom line” is that the Republican did not share his colleagues’ widespread disgust for “religious tests.”
“There are people who felt the same way at the time my grandparents emigrated from Italy to the United States–they wanted to limit people because they were Catholics,” he said. “I’m glad they were in the minority at that time, or I assume I wouldn’t be here.”
Sessions was joined in opposition by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and David Vitter (R-La.)
In October, Sen. Sessions cited a claim on the influx of mostly-Muslim refugees to Europe made by Matteo Salvini, a leader of the Italian extreme-right. Read that story here.
