Sens. Lindsey Graham (right) and Dick Durbin discuss their bipartisan DREAM Act during a news conference on Capitol Hill on Sept. 5. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Graham: Jeff Sessions 'is wrong' on Dreamers taking jobs from Americans

Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ assertion Tuesday that so-called Dreamers have taken jobs away from American citizens is “wrong,” Sen. Lindsey Graham declared Wednesday morning, pushing back against his former Senate colleague and calling for compassion from Congress.

“Jeff Sessions is wrong. These kids are not taking jobs from American citizens, they're part of our country,” Graham (R-S.C.) told NBC’s “Today” show, rebutting Sessions’ assertion from the previous day. “They're fully employed for the most part, they're in school, they will add great value. The president is right to want to have a heart for these kids.”


The attorney general’s comment about Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children, came during his announcement that the Trump administration will rescind DACA, a program that offers work permits to Dreamers and protects them from deportation. Sessions, known as a hawk on immigration issues during his Senate tenure, blamed the program for hurting American job-seekers and for creating a “humanitarian crisis” on the U.S.-Mexico border.

President Donald Trump, though, has adopted a warmer attitude toward Dreamers, pledging to treat them compassionately both before and after his announcement rescinding DACA. The president’s decision keeps the program in place for six months, creating a window for Congress to act on legislation to more permanently protect Dreamers. Similar legislation, dubbed the DREAM Act, failed to pass Congress during former President Barack Obama’s administration.

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Should Congress fail, Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday night that he would “revisit this issue.”

Graham, in his “Today” show interview, said Congress should create not just a path to legal status but also offer U.S. citizenship to Dreamers. But he also said Trump was right to rescind DACA because the program was on track to be ruled unconstitutional.

“The compassionate thing to do is to give these kids legal status, let them become citizens, they are all nonfelons, they have no other country to go to,” Graham said. “They came here as young children, they've lived their life in America and they would add great value to our country. That's the right thing to do regarding the kids.”

The South Carolina senator predicted that legislation to protect Dreamers could make its way through Congress packaged alongside funding for border security, money that would help Trump make good on a campaign promise. But Graham also said that money for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a specific campaign pledge of the president’s, need not be part of an immigration compromise, in part because it would not be effective.

“I think there is a congressional deal to be made for border security, that would not include a 2,200-mile wall, and the DREAM Act,” Graham said. “Because nobody — I've been to the border — nobody believes a 2,200-mile wall is the way to secure a border.”

