Hey Jeff, how 'bout you quit stabbing me in the back.

Hey Jeff, how 'bout you quit stabbing me in the back.

Alabama's anti-immigration senator, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, doesn't want to discriminate in his disdain for immigrants—he uniformly wants to keep them out! It doesn't matter if they fall under President Obama's 2014 immigration actions or they might be eligible for an H-1B visa for highly skilled workers, Sessions opposes them.

Fresh off his failed crusade to defund Obama's executive actions in the Homeland Security bill, he's mounting his next battle, reports Seung Min Kim:



Using his new gavel on the Senate immigration panel, Sessions said he plans to hold oversight hearings on H-1B visas that benefit high-skilled immigrants — one of the tech industry’s top priorities in Washington. Sessions has been in touch with tech employees who say they’ve been laid off in favor of foreign workers.

Now Sessions is moving to line up opposition against H-1B visas in case Senate Republicans move forward on legislation. Building a more robust high-tech workforce through immigration has been a rare area of agreement between the two parties, even as the H-1B issue itself has stalled over the years. Earlier this year, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced the so-called Immigration Innovation — or “I-Squared” — which would boost the number of H-1B visas issued each year to as high as 195,000. Currently, the H-1B cap is set at 65,000 annually, though an extra 20,000 visas are set aside for immigrants with a master’s degree or higher from a U.S. school. The measure is backed by a handful of Senate Democrats and key Republicans, including Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, John McCain of Arizona and Jeff Flake of Arizona.

You gotta give the guy credit—he's consistent. After helping to block a George W. Bush-backed immigration bill in 2006/2007 and helping to ensure the House would ultimately torpedo the Senate's bipartisan 2013 bill, he's taking on his own party again.That of course, is a tech-backed bill with bipartisan support that might actually be able to reach the president's desk. But not if Sessions can help it.

Progressives really should thank ol' JBS. He's helping to ensure Republicans won't have anything to show for their majority control, other than alienating an entire generation of Latino voters.