Jeff Sessions, a Republican senator from Alabama, told a radio interviewer in 2014 that undocumented immigrants should not be allowed to serve in the US armed forces.
One reason, Senator Sessions said, is that immigrants in the military are more likely than US citizens to be spies. He drew a hypothetical contrast between a Kenyan immigrant and a person from his own state.
[B]Mr Trump’s announced pick for attorney-general cited the case of a Kenyan in the US Navy who was arrested in Alabama in 2014 on charges of attempting to extort $50,000 (Sh5 million) as protection money from a local bank president.
“How did he get in the Navy?” Senator Sessions asked in regard to Edwin Kigathi Gitau.
“I’m wondering: could you get good test scores from his high school?” he continued. “Could you get a good grade point average from Kenya or wherever?”
Speaking with radio host Lars Larson in April 2014, Sessions asked, “in terms of who’s going to be most likely to be a spy: somebody from Cullman, Alabama, or somebody from Kenya?”
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Mr Gitau was acquitted of the charges in 2015.