Senator Jeff Sessions struts onto the stage at the Trump victory tour rally in Mobile, Alabama, basking in the celebrity glow of Donald Trump: Glynn Wilson

By Glynn Wilson –

WASHINGTON, D.C. — When Attorney General and former Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama went on the road recently to try to sell the Trump administration’s cruel and unusual policy of separating immigrant children from their families at the U.S.-Mexican border to law enforcement officers and the country by quoting the Bible, he may have accomplished his goal of scaring away some from crossing the Rio Grande River illegally. But he handed the Democrats another winning campaign issue just in time for the midterm elections.

Claiming he was addressing the concerns “of our church friends,” code for Trump’s white Christian Republican political base, Sessions cited Romans 13.

“I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order,” Sessions said last week during a speech to law enforcement officers in Fort Wayne, Indiana. “Orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves and protect the weak and lawful.”

But if Sessions were really serious about following what Jesus allegedly taught and what the Bible says, he might be better off to check out Isaiah 10, according to my friends and fans on Facebook.

“Woe to those who enact evil statutes and to those who constantly record unjust decisions, so as to deprive the needy of justice and rob the poor of my people of their rights, so that widows may be their spoil and that they may plunder the orphans.”

Sessions’ comment immediately set off a political storm that dominated the Sunday talk shows on all the national news networks, and prompted the Washington Post to publish a story saying Democrats are expanding their campaign to spotlight the Trump administration’s forced separation of migrant children from their families at the U.S. border, “trying to compel a change of policy and gain political advantage five months before midterm elections.”

Even the newest U.S. Senator from Alabama, Birmingham Democrat Doug Jones, who defended Sessions during the campaign for recusing himself in the investigation of Russian meddling in the presidential election, took issue with Sessions and the Trump administration policy in a press release on Sunday.

Senator Doug Jones greets a young supporter at a victory party in Birmingham, Sunday, Feb. 25, 2018: Glynn Wilson

“This cruel policy needs to end now but we need workable solutions that can address this specific problem long-term,” Jones said, announcing that he will cosponsor Senate Bill 3036, the Keep Families Together Act, introduced by Senator Dianne Feinstein of California. The legislation will halt the separation of immigrant families by preventing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from taking children from their parents at the border.

“The administration’s new policy of ripping apart families by separating innocent children from their parents is completely contrary to our core American values,” Jones said. “I have been looking at every possible option to stop this policy, to include Senator Feinstein’s legislation. While I plan to sign onto that legislation this week, we have to recognize that it is only a first step and does not offer any long term solutions to the underlying problems.”

Going even further on Twitter, Jone said, “It’s appalling to me that someone could use the Bible to justify tearing children away from their families. This @TheJusticeDept policy is not a law — HUGE difference — and it defies our values as Americans. I’m exploring every option available to halt this policy.”

Several Senators toured detention centers on the border over the weekend, including Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, to investigate the Trump administration’s “cruel family separation policy.”

After meeting with 10 women at the Port Isabel Detention Center who fled extreme violence in Honduras, “only to have their children taken away from them,” he said, “I heard gut-wrenching testimony. It was definitely one of the most emotional moments of the trip.”

While Senator Jones indicated there is no easy fix for the underlying immigration problem, he announced that he will be joining his Senate Democrat colleagues to call for Senate hearings on this issue “as soon as possible so we can better understand what a lasting resolution could look like for these families and negate the detrimental impact to these children.”

ABC News and the Washington Post are both quoting former Trump adviser Steve Bannon about the policy. He was fired by Breitbart News and sent off to the political wilderness last year after the Roy Moore lost the special election to Doug Jones in Alabama, a campaign he invested in heavily as part of his white nationalist, so-called populist agenda. Some critics come out and say it: He’s a neo-Nazi.

Steve Bannon of Breitbart News speaks on behalf of Judge Roy Moore at Oak Hollow Farm in Fairhope, Alabama, with one week to go in U.S Senate race, Dec. 5, 2017: Photo by Glynn Wilson

Yet he was embraced by what’s left of the tea part in Alabama and former judge Roy Moore in his racist, homophobic campaign in which he was accused of being something of a child molester himself for chasing teenaged girls around for dates at the Gadsden Mall.

Bannon had only been seen around Europe in recent days, campaigning with other nationalistic populists in places like Zurich and Italy.

But he must now be back in Trump’s ear and back on television in Washington, just in time to try to help Republicans win elections by focusing on the issue of illegal immigration.

“I don’t think you have to justify it,” Bannon told ABC’s “This Week.”

“We have a crisis on the southern border,” he said. “They are criminals when they come across illegally.”

Many pundits are already saying this stance and policy appears doomed to backfire on the Republicans, while informed Democrats know that to the extent that Latino immigrants vote, they will not be casting their ballots for Republicans.

We would welcome reader thoughts and stories in the comments.