Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) expressed his wish that President Joe Biden would enforce border security “like President Obama did.”
Lankford appeared on State of the Union Sunday to respond to Biden’s State of the Union speech, where he addressed the border crisis. The senator was harshly criticized by other Republicans for his border negotiations with Democrats, but he claimed from the beginning that his work was misrepresented ahead of the resulting bill failing.
Biden mentioned the failed bill during his speech but did not give any indication that he would reenact any of the executive orders from former President Donald Trump’s border policies. Among them were Title 42, which restricted immigration amid the coronavirus pandemic, and the “Remain in Mexico” policy.
“It was actually protected, President Biden could do ‘remain in Mexico’ right now. In fact, a court has ordered him to leave that process in place. So that process is in place,” Lankford said. “Again, that‘s one of the executive actions that President Biden chooses not to be able to enforce. There are a lot of things he could do. As I‘ve reminded the president and his team, President Obama enforced the border much better than President Biden did with the exact same set of laws.”
Last month, 242,587 immigrants attempted to enter the United States. This is in addition to the more than 10 million immigrants who have reportedly entered the country illegally since Biden took office. It is the most recorded in that amount of time of any administration.
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“If President Biden doesn‘t want to enforce it the way President Trump did, at least enforce it like President Obama did,” Lankford went on. “If President Biden would just enforce it the same way that President Obama or President Trump did, this would be a very different border and a very different situation.”
According to Lankford, there is no hope that a replacement border security bill could pass by this year.
