Top 8 quotes from Sessions' immigration stemwinder on the Senate floor

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., took to the floor of the United States Senate on Thursday and delivered one of his most passionate speeches yet in defense of the rule of law with regard to America’s immigration policies.

Sessions isn’t a newcomer to holding court on the floor of The World’s Greatest Deliberative Body. As a matter of fact, even though Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul got more attention in 2013 for their senate talkathons, Sen. Sessions actually clocked the most hours of talk time on the floor over the last 12 months — even surpassing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who opens and closes each session.

Senate Bar Graph

On Thursday, it was less about the length of Sessions’ remarks, and more about the pointed rhetoric he was utilizing to eviscerate the Obama Administration’s complete lack of enforcement when it comes to the nation’s immigration laws.

The full five-and-a-half minute video is well worth your time and can be viewed above, but here is a lightly edited transcript of Sessions’ remarks, with the top 8 quotes numbered and highlighted.

So this is open borders. If you get past the border, get into the interior, you go to St. Louis, go to Salt Lake City, you got to Little Rock, Arkansas, then you can just stay. That cannot be the policy of the United States of America. 1. It just cannot be the policy of a nation who expects its laws to be respected that if you can get past the border, or if you can get a visa into the country and overstay, nobody is going to have any intention of removing you or enforcing the agreement you made.

Attorney General Holder and Cecilia Muñoz, who’s the president’s policy person on immigration… they’ve described amnesty as a civil right. 2. So you come into the country illegally and the Attorney General of the United States declares that these individuals have a civil right to amnesty. How can this possibly be the chief law enforcement officer in America?

3. Vice President Biden recently said, ‘You know, 11 million people live in the shadows. I believe they’re already American citizens.’ 11 million undocumented aliens are already Americans? Goodness! The Vice President of the United States would make such a statement? It’s stunning beyond belief.

Apparently somebody whose visa is up and they were due to get on an airplane yesterday, and they read the Vice President’s statement and say, ‘Well, I’ll just stay. Why would I go back now? I kind of like this place. If I go back I’ll have to wait in line. I’ll have to compete within the system like everybody else who comes lawfully. But I’m here, I’m just not going to leave.’ Is it any wonder why we have more people staying?

4. We’ll just ignore the law when there’s a company down the street in an area of high unemployment and they’ve got five employees working illegally. Those would not be removed. They would be allowed to stay and just continue to work unlawfully. And Americans who can’t get a job would be drawing unemployment insurance or other subsidies. This is happening all over America.

More than two-thirds of all ICE removals last year were border apprehensions… 5. 94 percent of the people removed last year were either apprehended at the border, which is not a true deportation, or were convicted of a crime while in the United States. Do you hear that, colleagues? 94 percent of the people removed were either captured at the border, or had committed a serious crime. And most of the rest were repeat violators or fugitives who had been arrested on a fugitive warrant.

6. So, 99.9 percent of the 12 million illegal immigrants and visa overstays without known crimes on their record, including those fleeing from authorities, did not face removal last year.

7. If you are a run-of-the-mill immigrant here illegally, your odds of getting deported are close to zero. It’s just not going to happen. Now that’s the truth. I was a federal prosecutor. I know how the system works. I’ve worked with ICE officers and border patrol officers and prosecuted their cases. This is what the reality is.

If an individual has false documents, which is a felony for American citizens, that doesn’t count as a deportable crime. It’s only a drug dealing or a crime of violence or some robbery under the policies that we’re carrying out. 8. So it just goes to show that our law enforcement system is in a state of collapse. It’s a deliberate plan by the President of the United States and it’s wrong. And people need to be aware of it and need to stand up to it, and I think the American people are beginning to do so.