Responding to the outcry by church leaders, Attorney General Sessions quoted scripture Thursday to justify his department’s immigration policies. Sessions was speaking to an invitation-only crowd in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions: “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 the government for his purposes.”

Critics seized on Sessions’s reference to Romans 13, noting it was a favorite passage of defenders of the Confederacy used to justify slavery.