Lankford to GOP Colleagues: Letting in 5,000 People a Day Is the ‘Most Misunderstood’ Text in Border Bill

EXCERPT:

LANKFORD: “Right now there’s internet rumors, is all that people are running on. It would be absolutely absurd for me to agree to 5000 people a day. 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 individuals, it ends catch-and-release, it focuses on additional deportation flights out, it changes our asylum process of people and get a fast asylum screening at a higher standard and then get returned back to their home country. This is not about letting 5000 people in a day. This is the most misunderstood section of this proposal. Let me tell you briefly what it is. In the last four months, we have had seven days — in four months, we have had seven days that we had less than 5000 people. This is set up for, if you have a rush of people coming at the border, the border closes down, no one gets in. This is not someone standing at the border with a little clicker saying, 'I’m going to let one more in, we are at 4999 and then it has to stop.' It is a shutdown of the border and everyone actually gets turned around. That is the focus that we have right now, is how do we actually intervene in this administration and turn people around, not let people in?"