Attorney General Nominee Defends Obama Immigration Policies

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Challenged by Republicans, Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch on Wednesday defended President Barack Obama's decision to shelter millions of immigrants from deportation though they live in the country illegally. But she said they have no right to citizenship under the law.

She told her Senate confirmation hearing that under the administration's policy, the Department of Homeland Security focuses its efforts on the removal of "the most dangerous of the undocumented immigrants among us." That emphasis, she said, "seems to be a reasonable way to marshal limited resources to deal with the problem" of illegal immigration.

On another controversial topic, Lynch, the top federal prosecutor for parts of New York City and Long Island, said that current National Security Agency intelligence-gathering programs are "constitutional and effective." She said she hopes Congress will renew three expiring provisions in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the FBI to obtain search warrants and communications intercepts in intelligence cases.

Lynch made her remarks at a generally cordial Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, a likely prelude to her swift approval as the nation's first black female attorney general. The event was the first confirmation proceeding for any of President Barack Obama's nominees since Republicans took control of the Senate this month.

Lynch, a daughter of the segregated South, was accompanied at the hearing by about 30 family members and friends. Among them were her father, who is a retired minister, her husband and several members of her college sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, wearing their trademark red.

Settling into the witness chair for what promised to be a long day of questioning, Lynch promised a fresh relationship with law enforcement and Congress.

"I pledge to all of you and to the American people that I will fulfill my responsibilities with integrity and independence," she told a panel led by Republicans who say Attorney General Eric Holder has been too willing to follow President Barack Obama's political agenda.

"You're not Eric Holder, are you?" said Texas Republican John Cornyn, one of the current attorney general's most persistent critics.

"No, I'm not, Sir," she responded with a smile.