RUSH: Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, shows up today in Nogales, Arizona, on the U.S.-Mexico border to announce new law enforcement guidelines on illegal immigration. Here’s the first of three sound bites that we have…

SESSIONS: Starting today, federal prosecutors are now required to consider for prosecution all of the following offenses, often not prosecuted in the past. The transportation and harboring of aliens. As you know too well, this is a booming business. No more. We’re going to shut down and jail those who’ve been profiting from this lawlessness. Further, where an alien has unlawfully entered the country, which is a misdemeanor, that alien will now be charged with a felony —

RUSH: Whoa.

SESSIONS: — if they unlawfully enter —

RUSH: Whoa!

SESSIONS: — or attempt to enter a second time —

RUSH: Whoa!

SESSIONS: — and certain aggravating circumstances are present.

RUSH: They’re taking it to a felony for entering the country illegally. They’re gonna crack down on the business of transporting and harboring illegal aliens. By the way, just to remind you there’s a couple of stories today about how the level of immigration in many areas of the southern border — I think in Texas — is way, way, way down. I was gonna make a point about it, and one of the staff interrupted me with an unrelated question. This reminds me of what I was gonna say. Here just the threat of enforcing the law is apparently having a successful the result. Just the threat — just the administration claiming they’re going to enforce the law, prosecute violators — is causing the numbers to shrink dramatically. Here’s Jeff Sessions again…

SESSIONS: This is a new era. This is the Trump era. The lawlessness, the abdication of duty to enforce our laws, and the catch-and-release policies of the past are. In that vein, I’m also pleased to announce a series of reforms regarding immigration judges to reduce the significant backlog in our immigration courts. Backlogs and catch-and-release policies have undermine the effectiveness of our law officers’ work. Pursuant to the president’s executive order, we will now be detaining all adults who are apprehended at the border. They will not be released.

RUSH: Ah, you can expect some people to file suit on this, just like these people have done with these judges in Seattle and in Hawaii over the Trump travel ban. Hard-hitting stuff. And all of this… By the way, no new laws are needed for any of this. What you’re hearing here is the attorney general simply saying that they’re gonna enforce existing law. They’re not creating any new law. They’re just deciding to prosecute these laws now. And this is right there in the sweet spot of what people that voted for Trump expected to happen. And when they go do it, they don’t just do it.

They send the attorney general to make a big fanfare of doing it so nobody can miss it. Here is Sessions getting a question from a worried liberal reporter. The reporter is unidentified and she says, “What do you say to people who charge that they’re deeply offended by these policies and say that you’re using radical means in search of a solution for a problem that you’re overreaching on, especially militarization of the border? People live on this border, sir. People work on this border. Why don’t you talk to people who actually live and work on the border instead of just Border Patrol and ICE? Why don’t you actually talk to people who live here?”

So it was an effort to get Sessions to acknowledge that some people are offended by this, and here’s what he said…

SESSIONS: The American people have established a lawful procedure for immigration in our country, a lawful procedure of entrance and exit. We have that right here. I think things are moving in a good direction here. We’ve made a lot of progress in recent years over ending the illegality. I think the people of this country overwhelmingly want a lawful system of immigration that serves the national interests, one that we can be proud of — one that when somebody waits their turn, they know that they’re going to have an opportunity in the future, and that someone who comes in unlawfully doesn’t break ahead of them.

RUSH: So the reporterette here is highly worried that people are offended by these new laws that they’re overreaching — and there’s nothing new here. That’s the point. These are just existing laws being enforced, with the attorney general heading down to Nogales to make the announcement. We’re just gonna enforce the law. We’re gonna start prosecuting the law and — well, there’s one change. We’re converting some of these misdemeanors to felonies ’cause we’re serious about this. Hey, you know, you Never Trumpers, you can stuff it, because this is what Trump was elected to. And it’s clear that Trump is committed to his agenda on this.

Look at it this way. If just threatening to enforce the law has slowed the flood of illegal immigrants, think what actually enforcing it will do. Think of this. It could be dramatic! Just the threat has caused the influx of illegals to slow to a trickle in certain areas of the border. And there’s one other observation, and I have to make this. In these three sound bites, you heard the attorney general announce that we are going to be doing things that we have been told for years cannot be done. We’re never had explanations. We’ve just been told that we can’t enforce the law as written, that we can’t prosecute.

“We can’t go after the coyotes and.. We can’t.” We’ve not been told why. We’re just told, “It’s not practical. It’s not relevant in the twenty-first century. We can’t treat these people as criminals. They’re simply seeking a better life. They are oppressed people who are deserting war-torn and poverty stricken homelands and so forth.” But I remember distinctly all these things we’ve been told we can’t do it. When people say, “Why don’t just enforce the law?

“Why do we even need comprehensive immigration reform?” We ask, “Why not just enforce the law we already have?” “Oh, we can’t do that! Well, we need a new comprehensive immigration law.” Why? To satisfy the donors? So Sessions is doing what everybody’s told us we can’t do. He’s announced that they’re gonna do what everybody told us cannot be done.