The following is a transcript of an interview with Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma that aired on “Face the Nation” on Jan. 28, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And we’re joined now by Oklahoma Republican James Lankford. He’s in Oklahoma City this morning. Good morning to you, sir, it has taken you two months to get this bipartisan deal. Do you have the support of your fellow Republicans to actually vote this through?
SEN. JAMES LANKFORD: Well, actually, I wish it would have taken only two months. It’s taken about four months to be able to go through this, we started in October. Everyone’s looking to be able to read the bill at this point. That’s the key aspect, we’re working on the final aspects of it to try to be able to get it out. So everyone can get a chance to read it. Right now, they’re all functioning off of internet rumors of what’s in the bill, and many of them are false. So people want to be able to just see it, read it and go through it. And to be able to see the dramatic change that this really makes and how we handle our immigration system, and how we work to be able to secure our border completely. That’s been the simple request of Americans, whether you’re Republican, Democrat, or independent, people just want a secure border, where we have legal immigration, but we’re not promoting illegal immigration. And that’s what we’ve seen in the last three years.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So you don’t have a vote count yet?
SEN. LANKFORD: Do not have a vote count yet on this because everybody’s got to be able to read it to be able to go through. But I do feel very positive about it because even the initial feedback has been good.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So you just heard the details laid out there by our immigration correspondent, how do you balance the shutdown power that would be in these new authorities versus the right to claim asylum?
SEN. LANKFORD: Yeah, this is similar to what we had to under Title 42, during the pandemic time period, where we reach a crisis point to say we can’t actually operate. So we don’t have that authority. Right now, as the United States, we’ve reached crisis points. For instance, when we got four or 5,000 people crossing the border, we can no longer process those individuals. So right now, the Biden administration is just releasing them into the country. That’s what’s driving the mayors in Denver, in Chicago, in New York City and other places around the country crazy to say, when the border gets crowded, you just release them to our cities, and it causes all the chaos in these cities. This is a new authority to say, when we can no longer detain and deport, when we can’t process the people and actually make a decision right there at the border, then we’ll actually turn those folks back around to Mexico and say, “We can no longer do this.” That gives the authority to the United States into law enforcement, rather than the authority, just the criminal cartels. Right now. The cartels can just rush our border, they’ll get through as many people as they want to be able to get through. We can not have criminal organizations running our southern border, we have to be able to run our southern border.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So parole authority has been a sticking point for Republicans throughout. I know the administration has used it in a novel way to resettle 1 million people. So how are you changing that authority?
SEN. LANKFORD: Yeah, humanitarian parole is still- is still an issue for us. But it’s been an authority that every President has had to have basic humanitarian parole, but as you mentioned, this administration has used humanitarian parole in a way no other administration has. They’ve said, if you’ll just tell us in advance that you’re coming, come to a port of entry, the first day you get here, we’ll hand you a work permit, and we’ll release you into the country under parole. Well, that’s actually attracting more people, of course, people from around the world are going to want an American work permit to show up. So instead of deterring immigration, they’re literally incentivizing illegal immigration,. They’re handing people a parole and a work permit day one. That has to stop, we can’t just have a system where we have that. In between the ports of entries, when it gets crowded, they’ll just release them under a parole authority there. And they’re just released in the country. We don’t know if they qualify for asylum. We don’t know where they are. By the hundreds of thousands people are just being released in the country. And we have no tracking on them at all. That has to stop. This is a national security issue for us. May I remind you that we’ve had 50 people come across our border that we’ve interdicted, that are on the terror watch list. Just in the past four months, we’ve had tens of thousands of people that came across our border that were identified as a national security risk. Those individuals should not just be waived into the country.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board called this the best chance in years to fix asylum law and parole loophole. But Donald Trump, who is the front runner to be your party’s nominee in 2024 is telling Republicans not to support this. Here’s what he said last night in Las Vegas.
(SOUND ON TAPE)
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: A lot of the senators are trying to say respectfully they’re blaming going to me– I said that’s okay. Please blame it on me, please, because they were getting ready to pass a very bad bill. And I’ll tell you what a bad bill is– I’d rather have no bill than a bad bill.
(END SOUND ON TAPE)
MARGARET BRENNAN: Can you get this passed without Donald Trump’s approval?
SEN. LANKFORD: Well, I’m looking forward to President Trump having the opportunity to be able to read it like everybody else. There’s a lot of misinformation out there right now that I hear this comment that it waives in 5,000 people, it hands out work permits that- all those things are not true. There’s just a lot of internet rumors that are running around on this right now. We’re looking forward to getting the information out and I can say, there is no question no matter what your political persuasion is, we would not have had the immigration crisis we’re experiencing right now, if President Trump would have been president the last three years. There’s no way we would have had 8 million people illegally cross our border, because he would enforce those different authorities and would have made sure that we actually secure a border. But even while he was president, he was specifically asking Congress to change the standard on asylum to be able to tighten up, to be able to give them additional funds for deportation. All of those things are in this bill. So if he were to be president, this would be new authorities that he had actually asked for when he was president before.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. And I just- you just said that he has not read this bill. He doesn’t essentially know what he’s talking about. So this deal–
Sen. Lankford: — Well, I’m not saying that. I’m just saying there’s just a lot of rumors that are out there about the bill. And I want to make sure everyone has a chance to be able to read it before they make a final judgment.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. So the deal you just said would give any future president and the current one new authorities. So on the trail, Trump has vowed to block legal immigrants based on their beliefs to end birthright citizenship, to carry out mass deportations, and he has not ruled out separating kids from their parents. Would you trust Donald Trump with these new authorities?
SEN. LANKFORD: I would actually because these are not only new authorities that had been asked for by multiple presidents, whether it be President Trump, President Obama, President Bush before that, this is a basic thing that we have to have for our national security. When we talk about asylum, right now you cross the border, and you literally say, I have fear in my country, and you’re released into the United States and await a 10-year hearing. No one thinks that actually makes sense to have a 10-year backlog for just saying the magic words. I have fear in my country. We don’t really know if they qualify for asylum. We don’t know their criminal record. We don’t know anything else about it. That absolutely has to change. That’s been an issue for a very long time that changes this in law.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, we will have to see where we are on the vote count. But I want to ask you, back in 2022, Donald Trump endorsed your reelection. And in that endorsement, he said, “James Lankford is strong on the border.” Has anything changed with your thoughts about endorsing Donald Trump for president?
SEN. LANKFORD: No, it hasn’t at all. Obviously, he’s been very engaged, as I’ve mentioned already on it, none of the things that are happening in the last three years in the border would have happened if Donald Trump was actually president. He knows I’ve been very passionate about the border. This is an issue I’ve worked on for a very long time. He and I worked together when he was in the White House on some of his border policies. And when he did his big proposal, that was a legislative proposal, because again, President Trump proposed new laws and new issues on this, because we know that we have gaps in the system. So if you want to be able to secure the border, you can have President Trump to be able to come in to actually secure the border, because he’s going to focus in on that. But if he comes in and is elected by the American people to come this November, he’s going to want these additional authorities in this because it will help every president from here on out.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah, but you’re not endorsing him?
SEN. LANKFORD: I actually haven’t endorsed anyone on it. But he’d be a much better president than what we’re dealing with right now, definitely on national security.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. Before I let you go, I want to get your reaction to the news that he was ordered to pay $83 million to a person that a jury found he defamed after a separate jury found that he had sexually assaulted her. Does it give you any pause about him returning to office?
SEN. LANKFORD: It doesn’t. Obviously, these are legal cases. I don’t want to jump in the middle of a legal case. It’s been interesting the number of legal cases that have come up against President Trump and then have failed and had been dropped or had been kicked out of the courts on it. This one’s actually went through. He’s already said he’s going to challenge it. So let the courts actually make their decisions and let the American people make their decisions. We got states like Colorado that are trying to be able to block the people of Colorado from being able to choose who they vote for. Let the American people decide this in November.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the Supreme Court might decide on that one. We will have to leave it there for today, James Lankford. We will be focusing on what progress you were able to make. We’ll be back in just one minute.
