Harold Hutchison
Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma took to X Sunday evening to defend a foreign aid and border security bill he negotiated with Democrats, but faced withering criticism on the social media site.
Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington released the text of the legislation, which provides $60 billion in aid to Ukraine and $14 billion to Israel, Sunday evening after Democrats engaged in weeks of negotiation with Lankford. Lankford tried to defend the bill even after House Republicans indicated the bill was dead on arrival.
“The Border Emergency Authority has been the most misunderstood or maybe just misrepresented parts of the bill,” Lankford posted on the social media site. “Some people have said it would mean 5,000 people a day are coming into the country every day. That is absurd and untrue.”
“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,” Lankford added in a second post.
Lankford explained that the provisions were intended to allow the hiring of additional Border Patrol agents.
“The Border Emergency Authority only lasts 3 yrs to force this Admin to shut down the border & to give time for the next POTUS to hire more agents & more officers,” Lankford said in a follow-up post. “After three years, the emergency authority expires because we should have regained full control of our border by then.”
Lankford also defended the legislation in a Sunday night press call.
“If we have a crisis on our southern border, and we do… we should address that and do what we can to be able to solve that problem,” Lankford said, according to Punchbowl News senior congressional reporter Andrew Desiderio. “Not just hope that the problem gets better or hope that an election solves the issue.”
Conservative media figures and organizations on X quickly hammered the senator over the bill.
“Your Narrative vs. The Facts,” Kyle Becker posted, laying out several points in the legislation, before adding, “If you’re a far-left activist trying to overrun the United States with illegal migrants, what’s not to love?”
“Your amnesty deal is a slap in the face to the American people,” Washington D.C. Young Republicans posted. “Disgraceful!”
Fellow Republicans also hammered Lankford over his involvement in the legislation.
“You are an idiot,” Republican congressional candidate Anthony Sabatini posted.
“Just take the L,” Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida said.
United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported over 302,000 illegal immigrants came across the U.S.-Mexico border in December after nearly 380,000 illegal immigrants have been encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border during the first two months fiscal year 2024, which started Oct. 1, according to data released by the agency. CBP also reported 2,045,838 encounters in fiscal year 2023, 2,206,436 in fiscal year 2022 and 1,659,206 in fiscal year 2021.
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