We urge Senate to reject Lynch for Attorney General

NumbersUSA has notified every U.S. Senator that our Immigration Grade Cards will score a vote for Loretta Lynch as a vote for amnesty and against American workers.

As explained below, urging the rejection of a presidential nominee is something we have done rarely and not a decision we made lightly in this case.

We are asking our national grassroots network of citizens to contact their Senators with the message that Ms. Lynch, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, should not be confirmed as U.S. Attorney General because of her lack of acknowledgement of the importance of immigration laws to protect vulnerable American workers and of the need for them to be obeyed, particularly by government officials and agencies.

This is the message we sent into each Senate office:

NumbersUSA to score a vote for Loretta Lynch as a vote for President Obama’s unlawful amnesties and against American workers

The Office of the Attorney General, the top law enforcement office in the country, is a position that should be reserved for qualified individuals with the utmost regard for the rule of law. Unfortunately, while Ms. Lynch has served honorably as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, she indicated during the confirmation process that she does not have that regard for duly enacted immigration laws. She deemed “reasonable” President Obama’s unprecedented and unconstitutional amnesties. For a candidate wishing to serve as the chief law enforcement officer of the United States, the only acceptable response to the President’s abdication of the law and the Constitution is unequivocal rejection.

Her dismissive attitude about the seriousness of enforcing immigration laws was largely explained in her initial answer to Senate questioning about whether the priority for U.S. jobs should be that they go to unlawfully present foreign workers or to legal workers of our nation. Ms. Lynch answered that everybody should be getting U.S. jobs regardless of their legal status, despite the fact that the primary purpose of immigration laws is to protect vulnerable American workers. This attitude toward the law–particularly laws protecting American workers–is unacceptable for a candidate wishing to serve as the Attorney General of the United States.

Accordingly, NumbersUSA is forced to score a vote for the confirmation of Ms. Lynch as a vote against the Constitution, against the rule of law, and against the interests of American workers.

Full opposition to a presidential nominee is not common at NumbersUSA, although we may often express specific concerns and questions. I speak for myself in saying that Ms. Lynch in many ways appears to have been an excellent choice for the nomination. I was disappointed that she stumbled so badly on immigration issues during the confirmation process. As a practical matter, delaying confirmation of a new Attorney General would seem to keep in place the current Atty. Gen. Holder who has performed his duties abysmally when it comes to upholding any number of immigration laws passed by Congress. Nothing suggests that Ms. Lynch could be any worse in this regard. But {text} to millions of unlawfully present foreign citizens so that they can compete for every U.S. job that opens up while tens of millions of working-age Americans remain outside the workplace.

Ms. Lynch magnified her dismissive attitude about the seriousness of enforcing immigration laws in her gut-reaction answer to Senate questioning about who should be getting U.S. jobs as they open up. Ms. Lynch might have prevented us from taking this action against her if she had subsequently made a full-throated apology for her earlier remarks and then made convincing statements that she recognizes the importance of immigration laws in protecting the American public’s economic and physical security and that she respects the primacy that the Constitution gives Congress on this issue. She did not. We urge her rejection, especially for the sake of our country’s most vulnerable workers.

– ROY BECK is President & Founder of NumbersUSA