Published January 29, 2024
Senator James Lankford appeared on Fox News Sunday regarding a hotly debated border security bill that has stirred controversy across party lines.
The bill, criticized for allowing entry to thousands of illegal immigrants and funding conflicts abroad, was a major point of discussion between Lankford and host Shannon Bream.
Bream dove straight into addressing the contentious rumors surrounding the bill, confronting Lankford with Senator Ted Cruz’s assertion that the bill would normalize an “invasion” level of 5,000 people crossing the border daily. This figure translates to approximately 155,000 illegal immigrants each month, amounting to an annual total of 1.8 million.
According to information obtained by FOX News reporter Bill Melugin, the deal includes:
— Mandatory detention of all single adults.
— Mandatory “shut down” of border once average daily migrant encounters hits 5,000. Importantly, this 5,000 number includes 1,400 CBP One app entries at ports of entry per day, and roughly 3,600 illegal crossings per day.
— How is that enforced? Once the 5,000 threshold is hit, a new authority is codified into law that requires Border Patrol to immediately remove illegal immigrants they catch without processing. They would not get to request asylum, they would immediately be removed. This includes removals back to Mexico, and deportations to home countries. This would be a *massive* change from current policy, which is that once an illegal immigrant reaches US soil, they must be processed via Title 8 and allowed to claim asylum. Under this new authority – they are not processed, and they are mandatorily immediately removed once the “shut down” threshold is reached.
— This “shut down” also takes effect is there are 8,500 migrant encounters in a single day.
— The “shut down” would not lift the next day. It wouldn’t lift until daily encounters are reduced to under 75% of the 5,000 threshold for at least two weeks. This means the “shut down” authority would not lift until two weeks of an average of less than 3,750 migrant encounters per day.
— Some family units will be released with ATD (Alternatives to Detention, ankle monitors etc).
— New removal authority to immediately remove all migrants who do not have valid asylum claims, which will be determined within 6 months rather than the years long process we have right now.
— Any migrant caught trying to cross twice during “shut down” phase would be banned from entering US for one year.
— US will need agreement with Mexico for MX to take back non-Mexican illegal immigrants. This hasn’t been ironed out yet.
Lankford countered, insisting that the legislation’s ultimate goal is to reduce illegal crossings to zero, claiming that there is no amnesty involved and that the bill would bolster border patrol resources, increase detention capacities, and streamline the asylum process to ensure swift deportations.
Lankford: Right now, there’s Internet rumors, which is all that 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. 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 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.
“Let me tell you briefly what it is. In the last four months, we’ve had seven days that we had less than 5,000 people. This is set up for if you have a rush of people coming at the border, the border closes down, and no one gets in.”
“This is not someone standing at the border with a little clicker saying, I’m going to let one more in. We’re at 4,999. And then it has to stop. It is a shutdown of the border, and everyone actually gets turned around. Okay, that’s the focus that we have right now: how do we actually intervene in this administration and turn people around, not let people in?”
The bill, as described by Lankford, includes mechanisms to shut down the border in the event of a surge in crossings. Bream pressed Lankford on the nuances of this mechanism, referencing reports that the border would close only after a rolling average of 5,000 crossings over a week, with a potential for reopening.
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SOURCE: www.thegatewaypndit.com
RELATED: Lankford: ‘Internet Rumors’ Driving Border Deal Skeptics
Published January 29, 2024
During an appearance on this week’s “Fox News Sunday broadcast,” Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) pushed back against critics of his efforts to secure a deal on a border security package.
The Oklahoma Senator said the language of the bill had not been finalized and attributed speculation 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,” Lankford said. “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.”
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SOURCE: www.breitbart.com
RELATED: Oklahoma GOP votes to censure Lankford over Senate border talks
Published January 28, 2024
The Oklahoma Republican Party approved a resolution Saturday condemning and censuring Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) for his role as a chief negotiator in the Senate border security talks between Democrats and Republicans.
The resolution — a copy of which was posted on X, formerly Twitter — by state Sen. Dusty Deevers (R) said, “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.”
Senate negotiators have been working for weeks to negotiate a compromise on border and immigration policy that is meant to address the number of migrants who come across the U.S. border with Mexico.
“Authorizing several thousand people to invade our borders before any action can be taken is contrary to the oath that Senator Lankford took to the Constitution and therefore outside of the area that he is authorized to negotiate in,” the resolution states.
Some parameters of the deal being reported include a provision that would shut down the border once 5,000 migrants have come through. President Biden over the weekend took the remarkable step of declaring he had the authority to shut the border down and would enforce such action once a bill was signed.
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SOURCE: www.thehill.com
