The architect of the Senate Republicans’ pending surrender on illegal immigration defended the plan and blamed the growing opposition to it on “internet rumors” and the election.
In multiple media appearances on Sunday, Oklahoma GOP Sen. James Lankford called it “absurd” that he would go along with a plan that, if approved, allows nearly 2 million illegals into the country without fear of removal.
“The challenge that [Republican] Sen. [Ted] Cruz has and a bunch of other folks is they’re still 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, an Oklahoma Republican, told Fox News.
Read: Florida Sen. Scott Says Oklahoma Sen. Lankford On “Suicide Mission” On Illegal Immigration
“Right now there’s internet rumors 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.”
As Fox reported, Lankford maintained that the proposal actually increases the number of Border Patrol agents, asylum officers, and 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,” he continued. “This is not about letting 5,000 people in a day. This is the most misunderstood section of this proposal.”
On CBS News, Lankford reiterated those points.
“They’re all functioning off of internet rumors of what’s in the bill, and many of them are false,” he said. “People want to be able to just see it, read it, go through it, and to be able to see the dramatic change that this really makes in how we handle our immigration system and how we work to be able to secure our border completely.”
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Lankford rightly blamed Biden for the ongoing crisis at the southern border that has worsened during his tenure.
“The thought that somehow President [Joe] Biden can suddenly be the pro-national security president in the final months of this is not believable,” Lankford told Fox News.
“We’ve had millions of people illegally cross because he opened up our border. He literally invited the world to be able to come, and they came. That’s why we have this chaos.”
“We’ve got to do something now to be able to stop it, and then to be able to put new tools that even the Trump administration was looking for when they were president, put those tools in place for every president from here on out,” he added.
Biden has said publicly that he would sign an immigration reform bill if it had bipartisan support.
Yet Lankford apparently did not explain why the bill is necessary when Biden already has the tools to shut down the border.
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Former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Speaker Mike Johnson, Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene and numerous other Republicans have slammed Lankford and other GOP moderates for negotiating a bill that does not beef up security as much as the measure that House Republicans have already passed.
As the Tampa Free Press has reported, the initial details of the proposal of the deal Lankford has reached with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer include:
- 5,000 illegals a day to be suddenly considered legal.
- 50,000 additional green cards a year.
- Work permits for adult children for those immigrants with temporary visas for work.
- Work permits for every illegal immigrant released from custody.
- Taxpayer-funded lawyers to represent unaccompanied children and those with mental disabilities.
- Restrictions on parole for those caught entering the U.S. between designated points of entry.
Lankford told CBS News that he looks forward to Trump and other critics actually reading the final text of the plan, and that he has “very positive” feelings about it.
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