New Congressman Adriano Espaillat Denounces Attorney General Pick On House Floor

HARLEM, NY — Congressman Adriano Espaillat took to the house floor Tuesday to denounce President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Attorney General, Jeff Sessions. Espaillat — who represents Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood and parts of the Bronx — denounced Sessions for disparaging remarks the Alabama Senator made about immigrants from the Dominican Republic while debating immigration reform in 2006.

During his speech Espaillat — the first Dominican-American and former undocumented immigrant elected to congress — invoked Dominican immigrants such as Junot Diaz and David "Big Papi" Ortiz.

The Senate held a confirmation hearing Tuesday for Jeff Sessions.

Here's a transcript of Espaillat's full remarks:

Mr./Mrs. Speaker, I rise today to voice my strong opposition to the confirmation of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General.

In a 2006 speech, then Senator Sessions wrongly misstated, and I quote, ‘Fundamentally, almost no one coming from the Dominican Republic to the United States is coming here because they have a provable skill that would benefit us and that would indicate their likely success in our society.’”

When I was nine years old, I immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic without papers, and now I am a Member of Congress. Mr. Sessions: have I not succeeded in our society?

On behalf of millions of Dominicans Americans, and notable Americans such as Fashion Designer Oscar de la Renta, Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz, Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez, and Baseball Giant “Big Papi,” I stand here on the Floor of the U.S. House of Representatives as a proud Dominican, I say to Mr. Sessions: You are wrong. Wrong in thinking and wrong for our country.

I urge my colleagues to join me in opposing the confirmation of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General. Hateful speech and racist rhetoric have no place in American society.

Thank you."

While debating an immigration reform bill in 2006 Sessions said that most Dominican immigrants gain entry to the U.S. through false marriages and forged documents, and that they take more from the country than they can provide.

"Fundamentally almost no-one coming from the Dominican Republic to the United States is coming here because they have a provable skill that would benefit us and that would indicate their likely success in our society," Sessions said in 2006.

Sessions cited that as many as 95 percent of Dominicans entering the United States were allowed entry due to family connections, some fabricated, and not due merit. Sessions said he learned the information during a conversation with a worker from the United States consulate in the Dominican Republic.

During the same speech Sessions also lamented that every immigrant entering the United States should be required to speak English.

"They ought to speak English before they come here," Sessions said. "What is this about letting in hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people into the country on the theory that they might one day learn English?"

Of the nearly 1.5 million people of Dominican heritage living in the United States, nearly half (48 percent) live in New York, according to the Pew Research Center.

To watch Espaillat's speech skip to the 14-minute mark of this video:

Screengrab taken from CSPAN video