A Republican leader in the Senate's border security negotiations still believes the effort will pass Congress. Appearing on CBS' “Face the Nation” Sunday, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) attributed rising opposition to the tentative deal to “internet rumors.”
“The challenge that Senator Cruz has and a bunch of other folks is they're so waiting to be able to read the bill on this and this has been our great challenge of being able to fight through the final words to be able to get the bill text out so people can hear it,” said Lankford. “Right now, there's internet rumors. It's all that people are running. It would be absolutely absurd for me to agree to 5,000 people a day. This bill focuses on getting us to zero illegal crossings a day. There's no amnesty. It increases a number of Border Patrol agents and it increases asylum officers. It increases detention beds so we can quickly detain and then deport individuals.”
“It ends catch-and-release. It focuses on additional deportation flights out. It changes our asylum process so that people can get a fast asylum screening at a higher standard and then get returned back to their home country. This is not about letting 5,000 people in a day. This is the most misunderstood section of this proposal. And let me tell you briefly what it is. You know, last four months, we've had seven days – in four months, we've had seven days that we had less than 5,000 people. This is set up if you have a rush of people coming at the border, the border closes down, no one gets in.”
Over the weekend, the Oklahoma Republican Party (OKGOP) state committee voted to censure Lankford for his role as the chief negotiator in the bipartisan border talks.
A copy of the resolution posted by state Sen. Dusty Reevers (R) states, “Senator Lankford playing fast and loose with Democrats on our border policy not only disfranchises legal immigrants seeking citizenship but it also puts the safety and security of Americans in great danger.”
Newsweek continues:
There were more than 2.4 million encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border during the 2023 fiscal year, up from roughly 1.7 million in 2021, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a proponent of stronger border control, constructed the razor-wire as a series of measures he says is intended to prevent illegal entry from Mexico into his state, which shares more than 1,200 miles of the border.
The Oklahoma state committee's resolution said the OKGOP “strongly condemns Sen. James Lankford, if and to the extent that he continues these actions, and calls upon him to cease and desist jeopardizing the security and liberty of the people of Oklahoma and of these United States.”
It adds that until he “ceases from these actions, the Oklahoma Republican Party will cease all support for him.”
In a statement provided to Newsweek, OKGOP vice chairman Wayne Hill said the OKGOP state committee is “committed to holding elected Republicans accountable to the standards set forth in the OKGOP platform which supports limited legal immigration.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sent a letter to his colleagues Friday, stating that if reports on the legislation in the Senate are accurate, the bill will be “dead upon arrival” in the House.
Former President Donald Trump previously came out in opposition to the supplemental package.
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