Progressives urge school group to pull Sessions’ Reno invite

Carolyn Kaster / AP

RENO — A coalition of progressives in Nevada upset with Trump administration immigration policy is urging a national school law enforcement group to withdraw its invitation to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to speak at a conference next week in Reno.

Sessions is scheduled to address the National Association of School Resource Officers at a hotel-casino on Monday.

Leaders of more than a dozen labor unions, religious and minority groups sent a letter Thursday asking the association to rescind its invitation.

"Rolling out the welcome mat to Sessions as your keynote speaker at this moment would demonstrate your complicity" with his support for the "zero tolerance" policy of separating migrant parents and children at the U.S.-Mexico border, they wrote.

"Absent a formal condemnation of Sessions and his policy, it makes NASRO an accomplice in the internment of children at the border," the coalition said. "We beg you to reconsider this invitation. Show your members and the world that you stand on the side of human decency and morality."

Groups signing the letter included the state teacher's union, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada Action Fund, Ahora Latino Journal, Asian Community Development Council, NARAL Pro-Choice Nevada, Service Employees International Union Local 1107 and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Northern Nevada.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., planned to join members of the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union at a Friday afternoon rally in Reno protesting the administration's immigration policy. She plans to speak at the Nevada Democratic Convention in Reno on Saturday, where Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is scheduled to give the keynote address.

The Justice Department indicated in an email to The Associated Press on Friday that Sessions has no plans to back out of the Reno appearance on Monday.

"We look forward to continuing our strong working relationship with NASRO and improving school safety," the department said.

President Donald Trump signed an order Wednesday stopping the practice that has resulted in the separation of more than 2,300 immigrant children from their families. Homeland Security officials will now detain families together, but it's not clear what will happen with the children who are already separated.

Justice Department lawyers filed a memorandum on Thursday to a class-action settlement that governs how children are handled when they are caught crossing the U.S. border illegally. The settlement states that families cannot be detained longer than 20 days.

The Justice Department said in the email to the AP on Friday that the department has "moved promptly to modify a decades' old consent decree in order to end family separation."

The department email called on Congress "to finally act to keep families together, end catch and release, and create the foundation for an immigration system that serves the national interest," and said the administration will continue to enforce the law and protect the border.