Jeff Sessions

We said there should be an exit/entry visa, which the 9/11 Commission has hammered us for not completing as law required, and it still has not been completed.

We mandated a fence, 700 miles. It has not happened.

We are entering into an utterly lawless system here. Nothing Congress passes, apparently, has the ability to be effectuated in reality.

And the law, of course, requires that. It is just too often not being followed in an effective way.

It does not say that ICE has an opinion about this, it says they shall be deported.

So sometimes you just get caught up in things. Issues become big and an individual becomes a focus of the controversy.

I was disappointed yesterday that when I asked some questions of Ms. Lynch, she refused to give me a direct answer.

I was, however, very disappointed yesterday in the fact that in response to many hypothetical questions that were asked of her, we did not get a straightforward response.

I do not see any need for this Congress to confirm somebody to be the chief law enforcement officer of this Nation who is at that table insisting that she intends to execute a policy that is contrary to law and to what Congress desires and…

I believe Congress has a duty to defend its legitimate constitutional powers.

It seems to me that they are arguing that 'take care that the laws be executed' means you have to do the best you can to enforce the laws under the circumstances.

Well, and do you agree with Professor Turley that one of the most significant overreaches is the President's Executive actions with regard to amnesty?

It is a fundamental principle of the formation of our Government that the Executive does not get to make laws.

We are not going to allow this to become a political body that just conducts its work in haphazard, political, reactive ways.

The reputation of this great Department is being eroded.

The administration, I would suggest, quite plainly is nullifying American immigration law to a degree that is breathtaking, in effect.

Somebody needs to be asking themselves who is protecting the American worker, the people who are paying the salaries of you, the President and all of us.

The idea that there are rights that might attach to someone who is here unlawfully to take jobs from Americans under difficult working conditions, as we are today, is antithetical to common sense.

The person unlawfully here magically, at this moment, becomes eligible to compete against an unemployed American truck driver, and I think that is bizarre.

I think we are kidding ourselves if we suggest that we should not ask a nominee, someone who has been nominated to be the Attorney General of the United States, about problems existing within the U.S. Department of Justice.

What are we going to do to defend our constitutional heritage? And what will this Congress be able to say to subsequent Congresses if we acquiesce in these kind of activities?

The failure to defend DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act.

There is too much politics and not enough law.

I do not believe, and totally reject the idea that if Congress fails to act, then the President is entitled to act.

I believe it is indefensible.