Washington—Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today released the following statement in reaction to Attorney General Sessions’s speech yesterday on Justice Department enforcement priorities:

“The Justice Department has limited resources. It’s troubling that Attorney General Sessions is directing the department to shift its resources to criminalizing undocumented immigrants and prosecuting them under felony charges for simply working. California’s agriculture industry, for example, could be devastated under these new policies.

“At the same time Attorney General Sessions wants to use more federal resources to prosecute immigrants, the Trump administration has proposed cutting vital Justice Department support for state and local law enforcement by $700 million and eliminating legal assistance for low-income Americans. These are the wrong priorities for our country.

“I’m also concerned that Attorney General Sessions is hindering the ability of U.S. attorneys’ offices to focus their resources on the needs of their communities. U.S. attorneys should not be forced to divert their resources from important cases already underway, including financial fraud, cybercrime and sex trafficking.

“This is not about improving public safety. This is about furthering a false narrative that all undocumented immigrants are dangerous criminals.”