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Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is trying to win the messaging war on immigration.

The conservative Republican and chief critic of President Barack Obamas executive actions on immigration is sending around a detailed and lengthy memo that encourages fellow GOP lawmakers to block the unilateral moves, even arguing that Congress response to what he calls this emergency will define its legacy.

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Congress has the power to stop this action by denying funds for its implementation, Sessions writes in the memo sent to GOP congressional offices this week. Surely, Congress must not allow the president a single dime to carry out an illegal order that Congress has rejected and which supplants the laws Congress has passed.

The 25-page document is meant to frame the GOPs thinking on immigration in advance of the partys joint retreat in Hershey, Pennsylvania, during a week when House Republicans are set to pass a plan that would fund the Department of Homeland Security while killing Obamas executive actions on immigration. His aides spent much of Monday hand-delivering the memo to all GOP offices on the Hill.

The text on so-called executive amnesty makes up a fraction of the memo from Sessions, who distributed a similar document before last years House Republican as leadership unveiled their long-awaited list of principles on immigration reform. Those principles ultimately went nowhere.

The document also touches on what Sessions called the enforcement collapse of immigration laws under the Obama administration, as well as immigrations impact on the economy and welfare, and what Sessions termed the Silicon Valley STEM hoax the argument that the nation faces a shortage of high-skilled American workers to fill tech jobs. It also includes polling on immigration policies and suggestions for messaging.

But Sessions views on immigration, particularly on limiting the number of legal immigrants into the United States, runs counter to many in his own party who advocate for reforms to the current system to allow more immigrant workers into the United States, both high-skilled and lower-skilled.

Simply put, we have more jobseekers than jobs, Sessions writes. It is astonishing, therefore, that prominent members[of] Congress wish to see record immigration levels increased yet further.

Still, its the GOP response to Obamas executive actions that will be at the forefront of Congress agenda this week.

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Sessions: Not 'a single dime' for Obama's immigration moves