Washington, D.C. – The Senate Judiciary Committee today voted 17-1 against the Sessions 1 amendment.

The amendment would have limited the number of people who could immigrate to the U.S., weakening future legal immigration. Specifically, the amendment would explicitly limit legal immigration to 1.2 million people per year while eliminating important aspects of the merit-based system and stripping the improvements made to the employment based visa system. In essence, the amendment would have changed the bill to repeat many of the mistakes of the failed 2007 immigration bill. Senators John Cornyn, Ted Cruz, Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee joined with the rest of the Judiciary Committee to oppose the amendment as offered by Sessions.