James Lankford: Border Security

We have a crisis at the US-Mexico border that President Biden and his team refuse to acknowledge. After Senator Lankford toured the unfinished fencing at the Arizona border that was halted by the Biden Administration and the unfinished fencing and levy walls in South Texas, it is clear there is only one reason not to finish the border wall system under construction: because Biden wants an open border.

• Senator Lankford serves as the lead Republican on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Government Operations and Border Management, which has oversight of our border security and immigration federal personnel and operations.
• Lankford continues to lead the Senate on holding the Biden Administration accountable for its failures to enforce the law and preserve national security at our southern border. Earlier this month, Lankford participated in a press conference to discuss the ongoing crisis at the southern border that Biden continues to ignore. Lankford traveled to the Arizona border earlier this year to see first-hand the unfinished southern border wall that was halted by the Biden Administration. He was the first to expose the crisis at the border through Facebook so Oklahomans could see firsthand the crisis at the southern border in Texas.
• In July, Lankford released a report that exposed billions in waste to pay contractors to babysit the border wall materials while the Biden Administration “studies” it, even though Congress already allocated the money to build the wall. Lankford grilled DHS Secretary Mayorkas on his ongoing delay to finish the wall.
• Lankford successfully blocked President Biden’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office from opening a “surge overflow temporary facility” at the Great Plains Correctional Institution in Hinton, Oklahoma, that would have been used to process migrants who crossed the border illegally and release them into Western Oklahoma. Lankford expressed support for border law enforcement personnel who have told him they feel they are “handcuffed” by DHS leadership who tells them what immigration laws they can and can’t enforce. Lankford held a press conference with Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado to discuss Lankford’s blistering report of the $2 billion Biden has wasted to not build the wall, the ongoing national security threat at our southern border.
• Senator Lankford introduced a bill to stop the ongoing settlements between the US government and illegal migrants who were separated from their families at the border, some of which will be reportedly awarded as much as $450,000 per person and more than  $1 million per family.
• Earlier this year, Senator Lankford traveled to south Texas to see the issues near McAllen, TX. In the Rio Grande Valley region, our border law enforcement interdicts massive amounts of illegal drugs, and just this year they have encountered people crossing illegally from 56 different countries in that one narrow section of our border.
• After reports that the Biden Administration was proposing to settle with migrants who illegally crossed our border under President Trump and offer them payments of up to $450,000, Lankford introduced a bill to stop the ongoing settlements between the US government and illegal migrants who were separated from their families at the border, some of which will be reportedly awarded as much as $450,000 per person and more than $1 million per family.
• Lankford introduced the Upholding the Law at Our Border Act. This legislation would require the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security to investigate the vetting and processing of migrants apprehended along the southwest border and to ensure that all laws are being upheld. 
• Illegal crossings have skyrocketed under the Biden Administration.
• As of the start of this Administration, when someone crosses the border illegally, they are often released into the US within two hours and told to show up at a court hearing two to three years from now to request asylum. Once people started being released into the country, within hours people all over the world starting coming.
• Lankford sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas after evidence surfaced that contradicted the testimony Mayorkas gave while Lankford questioned him during a Senate Homeland Security hearing in September 2021. Mayorkas testified that ICE would enforce the law and deport individuals who received a “Notice to Report” but did not report to ICE. Recent reporting on a new DHS initiative called Operation Horizon shows that ICE is not enforcing the law against the illegal border crossers who have not followed instructions and reported to ICE within 60-days.
• We are a nation of legal immigration, but we are also a nation of laws. Securing the parts of the border that need a physical barrier is the first step to ensuring we can prevent illegal crossings and prevent coyotes from trafficking people over the border. The border and operations to control the flow of people crossing has been an issue for decades, and President Biden needs to close the border now. We are the greatest country in the world, of course people want to come here to live and work, but they should come legally.
• The great people who patrol our border have families and children of their own, they do not want to see this humanitarian crisis brought on by bad policy.
• Senator Lankford will continue to expose and demand Executive Branch action to stop the ongoing humanitarian and national security crisis at our southern border. We should finish the technology and infrastructure along the southern border and put policies in place that discourage, rather than encourage, illegal activity.