Senator Lankford discusses border security progress during southern border visit

Sen. James Lankford, a senior member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and Chairman of its Border Security subcommittee, traveled earlier this week to the southern border to see firsthand some of the changes that have taken place since President Trump took office in January. He spoke about what he saw and some of the ongoing border/immigration issues in an interview on Thursday.

LANKFORD: “There’s a tremendous difference in the number of people that are coming across now. There are a fraction of the people that I would typically see in that area. In fact, there were no unaccompanied alien children that were there. I can't remember the last time I was at a border crossing and there were zero unaccompanied children that were there. They're turning around the folks that are coming. And so it is a dramatic drop. What they are seeing is a rise in the number of people trying to get across in the ocean, where literally the cartels will now put somebody on a jet ski, or they will take a panga boat and try to be able to bring people around the barrier, there on the Pacific side, and to be able to bring them in. So the Coast Guard's had to elevate its role. So, for me to be able to go down and look at what's the Coast Guard doing, what's happening with Border Patrol, what's happening with customs coming across the border with different materials. And so it's very helpful to be able to see the movement there. But also see what authorities are still missing and what's still lacking there that we can actually still work on.”

CAMERON: You spent months last year working on a bipartisan border security bill that ultimately did not pass. Even with border crossings now under control, is there still a need for Congress to act?

LANKFORD: Yeah, there is. There's about ten different authorities that the president has used to be able to dramatically slow down what's actually happening at the border and to dramatically decrease the people coming across illegally and return people that are crossing illegally back to their home countries. Eight of those the courts have looked at and said, ‘yep, those are all fine.’ Two of them, the courts are looking at and saying they haven't made a decision on those authorities yet. If they decide, no, the president doesn't have those authorities, that's going to create another gap. And that's been one of the things that I've focused on for a long time. Any president needs to have the authorities they need to have in law to be able to actually enforce the law, so that we allow people legally to come into our country, that people illegally coming into our country, we can turn around quickly. That gives us control of our border. So, what I was trying to do in previous border bills was to add additional authorities, so this doesn't get caught up in the courts, because the president would have the authority that they need to be able to turn around people illegally coming into our country. That's still going to be there. We'll see what the courts actually decide on a couple of these issues, but I'm concerned the court's going to determine, no, you don't have the legal authority in these areas. That invites a new way for the cartels to exploit our border and to be able to move people in.

CAMERON: What do you think of President Trump offering $1000 to those who were already illegally in the country if they self-deport?

LANKFORD: It's a very interesting idea. In the bill that I actually had, that came up last year, we had a way for people as they were going through the legal process, to be able to say, hey, I want to be able to stop the legal process. I know I'm going to lose. I want to return home before I've got a mark on my record. So we actually created that. There was a bipartisan agreement. There was a lot of debate about do we provide them funds once they return home? I said no, at that point. I wasn't going to agree to that. But we did agree to their flight, going back home. What President Trump is proposing at this point is, we will help pay for your flight back home. If you're illegally present here and you can't afford to get home, we'll pay for your flight to get back home. And we may even provide you $1,000 when you get there as an incentive. That is actually much cheaper to be able to remove someone out of the country illegally. If we buy a flight and give them $1,000, they need that law enforcement come and arrest them. Go through the judicial process, try to remove them, and then put them on a government-paid flight anyway. So it literally is saving money to be able to just say, we'll hand you some cash as you walk out the door and pay for your flight. If you'll leave on your own.