James Lankford

I have to take a moment and thank you for your efforts to help this Nation...

We actually lost a bank, they got in there, they saw the corporate charter, and were like what's this, and they just panicked.

I had a popular commentator four weeks ago that I talked to that told me flat out before they knew any of the contents of the bill, any of the content, nothing was out at that point, that told me flat out if you try to move a bill that…

There is no reason for me to have this pen if we're just going to do press conferences. I can do press conferences from anywhere, but we can only make law from this room.

We definitely didn't shut him out. He asked him not be included from the earliest day.

The House has already spoken, the Senate needs to be able to speak and then we'll see we can actually align bill.

This bill focuses on getting us to zero illegal crossings a day. There is no amnesty. It increases the number of Border Patrol agents, it increases asylum officers, it increases detention beds so we can quickly detain and then deport…

Republicans have talked about this for a long time. I'm just telling them to read the bill and make their own decision on it.

It would be absolutely absurd for me to agree to 5,000 people a day. This bill focuses on getting us to zero illegal crossings a day.

We don't have that authority right now as the United States. We've reached crisis points.

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.

Those individuals should not just be waived into the country.

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 into the country.

People just want a secure border, where we have legal immigration, but we're not promoting illegal immigration.

Republicans four months ago would not give funding for Ukraine, for Israel, and for our southern border, because we demanded changes in policy. So we actually locked arms together and said, we are not going to give you money for this. We…

This bill focuses on getting us to zero illegal crossings a day. There is no amnesty. It increases the number of Border Patrol agents, it increases asylum officers, it increases detention beds so we can quickly detain and then deport…

Senator Tillis, that is correct that during the past several administrations, we had millions of people who have actually crossed our border, have either never requested asylum--at the border, they declared they were going to ask for…

I don't run into many people who call the Canadians extreme. Not a derogatory statement towards the Canadians, but they have a pretty consistent system on it. If you crossed from the United States into Canada and ask for asylum, they would…

It's pretty shocking on this because when you're the secretary of defense, you need to make everyone aware that you're actually going to be coming out of pocket.

The border is chaotic right now. We had the highest number of crossings of any September ever last September… the highest October ever, the highest November ever, and we had the highest single day just this last week.

We've got to figure out how to be able to manage this.

We've had the highest number of crossings of any September ever last September… the highest October ever, the highest November ever, and we had the highest single day just this last week.

We had the highest number of crossings of any September ever last September… the highest October ever, the highest November ever, and we had the highest single day just this last week.

All we're trying to do is to say what tools are needed to be able to get this back in control, so we don't have the chaos on our Southern border.

If I talk to just about anyone in the country outside of Washington D.C., they would say the border is chaotic right now.