GOP Sen. Lankford: We ‘Need a Law to be Able to Fix the Asylum Loophole’

Senator James Lankford (R-OK) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Congress needed to pass a law to fix “the asylum loophole.”

Host Dana Bash said, “I want to ask you about immigration, which is, of course, a top priority for Donald Trump, a top priority for you. You negotiated a major bipartisan immigration deal. Kamala Harris supported it. As you, of course painfully remember Donald Trump single handedly tanked it. What do you expect to happen now that he’s returning? Do you think there’s any chance your bill can be resurrected? Something along those lines, maybe something different?

Lankford said, “I would disagree that Donald Trump single-handedly rejected it or tanked it obviously. Members of the Senate had to be able to speak out on that. But I would tell you, the bill itself had two major sections of it. One is it cut off funding in many of the programs that President Biden wanted until he started actually enforcing the border. The second portion of it fixed what’s called the asylum loophole. That is a gap in our law that’s being exploited right now. Obviously, the first part of that bill is no longer needed. No one thinks that President Trump is not going to enforce the border. He’s going to enforce the border, so that portion of the bill is not needed anymore. We still are going to need a law to be able to fix the asylum loophole. And I’d be glad to be able to work with the White House to be able to get that done. President Trump spoke out about that when he was president before, saying we need to be able to resolve those issues. We will in the days ahead and be glad to be able to work with the White House, to be able to get that done.”

Follow Pam Key on X @pamkeyNEN

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