We ‘Need a Law to be Able to Fix the Asylum Loophole’

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said Sunday on CNN's “State of the Union” that Congress needs to pass legislation to fix the “asylum loophole.”

Host Dana Bash said, “I want to ask you about immigration, which of course is a top priority for Donald Trump and a top priority for you. You negotiated an important bipartisan immigration deal. Kamala Harris also supported it. Of course, you also painfully remember that Donald Trump single-handedly tanked it. What do you think will happen if he comes back? It's possible that the charges will be reinstated. Do you think? Something along these lines, maybe something different?

“I don't agree with the idea that Donald Trump would unilaterally deny or explicitly deny,” Lankford said. Senators had to be able to speak out about it. But let me tell you, the bill itself had two major sections. One is that funding for many of the programs that President Biden wanted will be cut off until he actually starts border security. Its second part fixed the so-called asylum loophole. That is the gap in our laws that is currently being exploited. Obviously, the first part of that bill is no longer needed. No one thinks President Trump won't tighten border security. He's going to police the border, so we don't need that part of the bill anymore. Legislation is still needed to fix asylum loopholes. And I'm pleased to work with the White House to make that happen. President Trump spoke about that before when he was president and said we need to be able to solve those problems. We are pleased to work with the White House in the coming days to get that done. ”