As Attorney General, Jeff Sessions did not miss an opportunity to criminalize and terrorize people of color. In this thread, we’ll take you through the 25 ways he did so:
1. Sessions sabotaged the 2020 census by helping Wilbur Ross add a new question about immigration status.
1. Sessions sabotaged the 2020 census by helping Wilbur Ross add a new question about immigration status.
2. Sessions asked Congress to eliminate the DOJ’s Community Relations Service, which is dedicated to addressing racial tensions and preventing hate crimes.
3. Sessions’ DOJ urged the Supreme Court to greenlight harmful voter purges nationwide.
4. Sessions threatened to make matters worse for black transgender individuals by reversing Obama-era policies that sought to protect transgender workers from employment discrimination.
5. Sessions revoked critical employment protections for people with disabilities, finding that they were “unnecessary, inconsistent with existing law, or otherwise improper.”
6. Sessions exploited his position as attorney general to criticize and make light of universities that seek to create inclusive, hate-free learning environments.
7. Under Sessions, the DOJ rescinded federal protections for transgender students in K-12 schools, denying them the ability to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity.
8. Sessions and the DOJ consistently sought to undermine race-conscious admissions policies
9. Sessions rejected data stating that African Americans or black Americans are more than twice as likely to be arrested for drug possession and ordered prosecutors to pursue the harshest drug sentences possible—without regard to an individual’s role in a drug conspiracy.
10. In his role as attorney general, Sessions pushed prosecutors to crack down on marijuana possession in states where it is legal and lobbied legislators to reverse federal protections for medical marijuana.
11. Sessions eliminated training and supervision requirements for law enforcement seeking to obtain surplus weapons and equipment from federal agencies.
12. Sessions supported expanding the use of private prisons as part of the DOJ’s immigration crackdown and renewed war on drugs campaign.
13. Sessions ignored the data showing that violent crime has declined significantly in recent decades and instead peddled false narratives about crime to justify police crackdowns in communities of color.
14. Data show that innocent black Americans are 7x more likely to be convicted of murder than white counterparts, partly due to insufficient & inaccurate forensic evidence. Sessions axed the National Commission on Forensic Science, which works to improve forensic reliability.
15. In his role as attorney general, Sessions threatened to shut down halfway houses and limit access to transitional services, which are key barriers to successful re-entry.
16. Sessions misrepresented data about the rate of violence experienced by law enforcement to justify the overpolicing in communities of color.
17. Sessions asked courts to disregard an Obama-era letter requesting them to be lenient and cautious of overcharging low-income defendants of color.
18. Despite success under police reform agreements, Sessions effectively barred the DOJ from investigating and addressing systemic law enforcement misconduct at the local level.
19. Sessions exposed his backward views in racially charged statements about the importance of the “Anglo-American heritage of law enforcement.”
20. In April 2018,Sessions announced a zero-tolerance immigration policy of prosecuting anyone who arrives in the U.S. without documentation—even families seeking asylum. The policy separated thousands of children from parents. The zero-tolerance policy remains on the books today
21. Entangling local law enforcement with immigration enforcement diminishes public trust and public safety. Despite such concerns, the Sessions DOJ sued California for refusing to help round up immigrants across the state.
22. In 2017, then-Attorney General Sessions announced that the administration would eliminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. He also repeatedly refused to defend DACA in federal court.
23. Sessions forced judges to rush deportation cases by revoking policies that allow additional time for deliberation. Moreover, he implemented quotas in order to expedite the rate of deportations.
24. Rather than embracing the thousands of people of color facing gender-based violence and or gang violence in their countries of origin and expanding access to victims’ services, Sessions declared that they will likely no longer qualify for asylum.
25. In the past 2 years, the Trump administration has advanced 3 versions of its Muslim ban. Despite putting thousands of refugees’ lives at risk, Sessions' DOJ defended these efforts and secured support from conservatives on the Supreme Court to let the travel ban take effect.
You can read the full analysis here: americanprogress.org/issues/race/ne…
