Uptown Politicians Denounce AG Pick Jeff Sessions for Insulting Remarks About Dominicans

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS-INWOOD, NY — Dominican-American politicians representing Uptown neighborhoods denounced Dondald Trump's pick for Attorney General, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, for insulting remarks he made in 2006 about Dominican immigrants.

On Sunday City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez and future State Assmeblywoman Carmen De La Rosa called Sessions' appointment as the next Attorney General an "outrage."

"It is an outrage that our current nominee for United States Attorney General has written off the hard-working people from the Dominican Republic. Dominicans-Americans have offered countless contributions to our country. From art and academics to music, sports and entertainment, to elected leaders, judges and even Pultizer Prize-winning authors," Rodriguez said Sunday. "I encourage Senator Sessions to inform himself about these accomplishments, to reconsider his statements and apologize to the Dominican community in the United States and beyond."

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.

Sessions will need to be approved by the Senate before he assumes the role of Attorney General. With a Republican majority in the Senate it is likely that Sessions will be approved, although he was denied a federal judgeship in 1986 over allegations of racism.

Watch Sessions' full remarks from 2006 here.

Photo: Courtesy of Gage Skidmore via Flickr/Creative Commons