Lankford on Fox News Sunday on Border Security says Rumors are Absurd

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OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Senator James Lankford (R-OK), lead Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Government Operations and Border Management, joined Fox News Sunday to discuss his ongoing work to secure the US-Mexico border and address the rumors, specifically saying the rumor that the policy allows “5,000 illegal migrants in a day,” is absurd.

Excerpt:

BREAM: You were here a month ago and said you were getting close then and are closer now. Talk about the rumors and give you a chance to respond to critics who do not like this bill. Something akin to Title 42 that would allow everyone to be turned away once there were 5,000 people showing up. Here is Senator Ted Cruz on that bill.

SENATOR TED CRUZ (CLIP): This bill normalizes 5000 people per day, which is 1.8 million per year. that is called an invasion, under Joe Biden we had 9.6 million. The great compromise, we are for two-thirds of open borders, let in 6 million instead of nine million, this makes no sense.

BREAM: Is that part of the deal and how do you convince someone like Senator Cruz to vote for it?

LANKFORD: This is our great challenge of fighting through the final words, right now there is internet rumors. It would be absurd for me to agree to 5000 people per day, we want zero illegal crossings per day, no amnesty and increases asylum officers and detention beds. It ends catch and release and focuses on deportation flight out and changes asylum process to a higher standard and get returned back to their home country. this is not letting 5000 people in per day. This is misunderstood. Let me tell you briefly what it is. last four months, we have had seven days that we had less than 5000 people, this is set up if you have a rush of people coming at the border, the border closes down and no one gets in. It is not someone standing with a clicker and it stops, it is shutdown of the border and everyone gets turned around. How do we intervene in this Administration and turn people around and not let them in.

BREAM: There may be additional measurement, you get to 5000 in a week and zero from there our Bill Melugin. the gates would open again. Can you confirm or deny that?

LANKFORD: Yeah, again, it is not gates opening, it’s a misunderstanding of the bill; it’s how many can we process and deport. when you raise the standard and increase detention bed and deportation flights, you do not let people in. people are thinking how the Biden Administration is running it now, they are allowing 1500 people per day to get released into the country. People get a knows to appear and get released, all that stops. We want to deport out of the country, not release it would be absurd to say we’re  slowing number of releases, we focus on how to enforce the border and get back to zero people crossing the border. Every administration has struggled to get authority in place.

BREAM: Senator Mike Lee brought up idea of work permits. You want to set the bar higher for getting in on asylum and you say a lot of people will not make it and be turned away. His concern is for people that make it through, they have to wait 180 days and that would go to zero turning into a magnet to bring people in.

LANKFORD: You come to port of entry, work permit is given first day you walk across the border, show up, tell us your name and you are in the country. Tell us in advance you are coming, only limitation. People apply for asylum, they don’t qualify. They apply and get a work permit, these folks are driving folks crazy, they are wandering around cities. We want only people getting a work permit are people that have been evaluated and likely to end up with asylum, those are the individuals that will likely stay here, fraction of the people in the process. Vast majority of people will be turned around and deported. We are the United States of America and open to legal immigration in the process and if people are legally going through the process and qualify and gone through vetting and such, we would continue to have work permits but we’re stopping the free pass out at the border and if you give us your name, you get a permit, that ends.

BREAM: President Biden spoke about this last night on campaign rally, he says he would fix this whole thing. republicans are saying he has executive power and laws not being enforced, why give him this? The cover of this deal critics say will still let a lot of people get in and he takes a victory lap he’s gotten something done.

LANKFORD: It will not let people in, it is focused on turning people around. Republicans would not give funding for Ukraine and Israel and southern border because we demand changes in policy, we will not give money for this, we want a change in law. A few months later, getting to the end, just kidding, I don’t want a change in law because presidential election year. We have an oath and need to do whatever we can to secure the border. Last four months, we’ve had 50 people cross the border on the terror watch list and tens of thousands declared a national security risk that came across the border and released. it is our constitutional obligation to secure our country as fast as we can secure our country. This puts in mandatory pieces that have if President Trump was elected, he was president now, this border would not have this problem. The thought President Biden can be pro-national security president in last months is not believable. We’ve had millions cross because he opened up our border and invited the world to come and they came. We have chaos and have to stop it. and put new tools even Trump Administration was looking for in place for every president from here on out.

BREAM: Keep us up to date, thank you for your time.

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