Senator James Lankford (R-OK) said on this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday” that his Republican colleagues criticizing the bipartisan border deal are doing so because “it’s a presidential election year.”
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said, “This bill normalizes 5,000 people coming in a day.”
Lankford said, “Right now these internet rumors is all the people are running on. 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 the number of border patrol agents, 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 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.”
Anchor Shannon Bream said, “A lot of Republicans are saying he has things he could use now, executive powers and laws that are not being enforced. So why give him this in an election year? The cover of this deal that critics say is still going to let a lot of people in, but he gets to take a victory lap that he’s gotten something done.”
Lankford said, “It’s definitely not going to let a bunch of people in. It’s focused on actually turning people around on it. It is interesting, Republicans four months ago would not give funding for Ukraine, for Israel and for our southern border because we demanded changes in policy. So we actually locked arms together and said, ‘We’re not going to give you money for this. We want a change in law.’ And now it’s interesting, a few months later, when we’re finally going to the end, they’re like, ‘Oh, just kidding. I actually don’t want a change in law because it’s a presidential election year.’ We all have an oath to the Constitution and we have a commitment to say we are going to do everything we can to secure the border.”
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