Republican Defends Border Bill: '1 Million' Fewer Migrants in US Right Now

Republican Senator James Lankford defended the bipartisan border security bill on Monday, saying that if it was in place already, it could have resulted in one million fewer illegal immigrants in the country right now.

"Not only would the border would be shut down today it would have been shut every single day the last four months," Lankford said while on Fox News' Fox & Friends. "If this would have been in place four months ago, we would have had a million fewer illegal immigrants into our country right now."

The Context

On Sunday, the text of a bipartisan border security bill was released after Lankford lead Senate Republicans in their negotiations with Democrats and U.S. President Joe Biden's administration.

Republicans have been vocal in their criticism of Biden and his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, as data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) show a continued increase in migrant encounters at the Southwest border over the past several months.

What We Know

Upon releasing the text of the proposed bill, Lankford attempted to clear up some confusion over the legislation on social media, calling it "misunderstood."

"Some people have said it would mean 5,000 people a day are coming into the country every day. That is absurd and untrue," Lankford wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "The emergency authority is not designed to let 5,000 people in, it is designed to close the border and turn 5,000 people around."

During his appearance on Fox & Friends, Lankford explained the contents of the bill saying, "the key thing here is [it] changes the asylum laws, builds more wall, adds more detention beds, adds more deportation flights, changes the 10-year backlog that we're currently in now to weeks before people are actually deported."

"That's what the bill really does," Lankford said.

Newsweek reached out to Lankford's spokesperson via email for comment.

Views

Shortly after the text of the bill was released, some Republican lawmakers spoke out against it. Senator Mike Lee said, "The border deal is even worse than we thought."

"No one who cares about our border security should support it. It is a betrayal of the American people," Lee wrote on X.

House Speaker Mike Johnson also offered criticism of the bill over the weekend, saying: "I've seen enough. This bill is even worse than we expected, and won't come close to ending the border catastrophe the President has created. As the lead Democrat negotiator proclaimed: Under this legislation, 'the border never closes.'"

"If this bill reaches the House, it will be dead on arrival," Johnson added in a post on X.

What's Next

Senators are expected to review the bill over the next few days and Lankford said that there will be a procedural vote on Wednesday to decide if lawmakers will debate on the bill.

Lankford said that the bill will force Republicans to take a stance on either changing the issues at the U.S.-Mexico border or leaving them alone.

"Are we as Republicans, going to have press conferences and complain the border is bad and then intentionally leave it open," Lankford said. "Now we've got to actually determine are we just going to complain about things or are we actually going to address and change as many things as we can."

Update: 2/5/24, 8:07 a.m. EST. This breaking news story has been updated with further information and to reflect that Newsweek reached out to Lankford's office for comment.

Update: 2/5/24, 8:30 a.m. EST. This story has been updated with additional information.