People who oppose a potential Senate-White House compromise border security bill, including former President Donald Trump, are misinformed and basing their pushback on "internet rumors," Sen. James Lankford, the lead Republican negotiator in the talks with Democrats, said Sunday.
"They’re all functioning off of internet rumors of what’s in the bill, and many of them are false," the Oklahoma Republican said on CBS’ "Face the Nation." "People want to be able to just see it, read it, go through it, and to be able to see the dramatic change that this really makes in how we handle our immigration system and how we work to be able to secure our border completely.”
Trump said in a campaign rally Saturday that the bill isn't designed to stop illegal immigration, and he continues to be opposed to it.
But Lankford said Sunday he feels "very positive" about the bill, as "even the initial feedback has been good."
Lankford commented that he and Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., are working on the "final aspects" of the bill, with a key step to release the legislative text so senators can review the language for themselves.
Three people familiar with the talks told CBS News that the bill is expected to allow the executive branch the authority to pause asylum proceedings when there are spikes in migrant crossings. The legislation is also expected to raise the standards for accepting people seeking asylum and to expand expedited deportations.
Lankford added he looks forward to Trump reviewing the bill's final version, and said that as it will give the president new authorities, Trump could use the new powers if he's elected president this fall.
The senator, though, credited Trump for how he handled the border, commenting that "none of the things that are happening the last three years on the border would have happened if Donald Trump was actually president."
Meanwhile, Lankford told "Fox News Sunday" that the Senate has an "oath to do whatever we can to secure the border."
"In the last four months, we've had 50 people cross the border on the terror watchlist," he said. "It is our constitutional obligation to secure our country as fast as we can."
But millions have crossed the border because Biden "opened up our border and invited the world to come, and they came," said Lankford. "We have chaos and have to stop it and put new tools, even [those] the Trump administration was looking for, in place for every president from here on out."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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