In a statement given before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) lamented that businesses are seeking to advance the immigration debate by making arguments in favor of increased foreign labor.

According to Sessions, proponents of certain immigration measures are treating people as commodities, which he argues isn’t in the interest of American workers.

“People aren’t commodities. We compare labor to commodities, but they’re not commodities. They’re human beings. They have families. They have hopes and dreams. They want stability in their life. They would like to have a good job at a company like the biggest utility in California—California Edison [where hundreds of Americans were laid off and replaced with guest workers]… We have no obligation to yield to the lust of big businesses… Mr. Zuckerberg is worth $27 billion, I guess he is 27 years old, I’m not sure. So he wants more foreign workers. I would like to think he might want to pay his employees more and maybe not have quite so many billions, if he’d like to be helpful, and maybe he could get more local workers.”

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