Three senators are working together to put together a border security agreement that is acceptable to both Democrats and Republicans. Senator James Lankford (R-OK) is the lead Republican in the negotiations. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) are the others.

Let’s be clear from the start – the language of the border security agreement has not been released. No one has seen it. Yet, it seems that the Republican Party in Oklahoma moved forward with their disapproval of Lankford’s work on it and has censured him. It sounds as though they may have jumped the gun but until the text in the bill are made public, that can’t be proved.

The sticking point is the alleged allowance of 5,000 illegal immigrants per day being the cut-off number before the border is closed. That is supposed to be the magic number. If true, it is completely unacceptable to Republicans. The goal is to have zero illegal immigrants crossing the border, not 5,000 a day. The question is whether or not that number is in the proposal. Lankford says he would never agree to such a thing.

A group of bipartisan Senate negotiators are working on a compromise bill to help stifle the chaos at the United States-Mexico border, with both sides expressing optimism about the bill’s progress. One of the provisions of the bill would give the Biden administration a new expulsion authority if illegal crossings exceed 4,000 a day — with the authority automatically triggering if they exceed 5,000 daily per week or 8,500 in a single day, a detail that enraged and was cited by the Oklahoma GOP in justifying their action against Lankford.

That’s crazy. That is not securing the southern border. That is an incentive for the flood of illegal immigrants to continue. Allegedly Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has agreed to support what the group has come up with. Democrats are desperate to get a border security bill passed so that they can get more funding for Ukraine passed. No border security bill, no Ukraine funding. Republicans have leverage here. They must hold the line. It will be a huge defeat for border security if those numbers are in the final product.

Oklahoma Republicans are angry with Lankford for what they call his “Open Border Deal” with Schumer that allows 5,000 illegal immigrants to enter the U.S. very day.

Republican Oklahoma State Senator Dusty Deevers posted the State Committee’s resolution on X on Saturday.

“Resolution Condemning & Censoring Senator Lankford’s Open Border Deal” as approved by the OKGOP State Committee members on January 27, 2024. pic.twitter.com/peVqHAfIpt

— Dusty Deevers (@DustyDeevers) January 27, 2024

The resolution accused Lankford of “playing fast and loose with Democrats on our border policy.” And it mentions the “authorizing several thousand people to invade our borders before any action can be taken.” I, too, am angry about numbers in the agreement, if it is true, but I just don’t think that Lankford is the “fast and loose” kind of lawmaker. As it turned out, Lankford was a guest on two Sunday morning political shows. He appeared on Fox News’ Fox News Sunday and CBS’s Face the Nation.He said that some of the claims in the resolution are just internet rumors.

“This bill focuses on getting us to zero illegal crossings a day. There’s no amnesty. It increases the number of Border Patrol agents, increases asylum officers, it increases detention beds so we can quickly detain and then deport individuals,” Lankford said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“It focuses on additional deportation flights out. It changes our asylum process so that people get a fast asylum screening at a higher standard and then get returned back to their home country,” Lankford added.

Lankford noted that, in the last four months, there have only been seven days where there were fewer than 5,000 unauthorized border crossings a day, and that the bill was intended to close down the border so that “no one gets in” if there was a rush of crossings.

“This is not about letting 5,000 people in a day. This is the most misunderstood section of this proposal,” Lankford said on Sunday on Fox. “This is not someone standing at the border with a little clicker saying, ‘I’m going to let one more in. We’re at 4,999’ and then it has to stop. It is a shutdown of the border and everyone actually gets turned around.”

On Sunday, Lankford said the measure will ensure that the only migrants who get a work permit are those who have gone through a “strenuous evaluation” and who are probably going to be able to end up with asylum and remain in the United States.

“That’s a fraction of the people that go through the process. The vast majority of people that actually go through this process will be turned around and were deported,” Lankford said.

Lankford said it would be absurd to agree to 5,000 people a day. He claims the bill focuses on getting to zero illegal crossings a day.

The Oklahoma resolution states that the Oklahoma Republican Party will cease all support for him until Lankford ceases working on the bill.

Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) was a guest on the Fox show after Lankford and he said that there is no need for a new bill. All Joe Biden has to do is enforce the immigration laws on the books now. He said Lankford is on a suicide mission. Scott will not support the package.

“Now, James is doing the best he can to try to explain the bill that, unfortunately, I don’t know why they don’t share it with us. I mean, I’d rather be for something, but we don’t get anything,” Scott said. “Biden could [shut down the border] today. Why doesn’t he do it today? I mean, he doesn’t need any of this to secure the border.”

None of this kerfuffle would be happening if there was transparency in the Senate’s work. The secrecy and mystery is wrong, especially on a subject that a majority of voters hold as the most important issue in the upcoming presidential election. It must not be acceptable to most Republicans if they have not released the text of the bill while Democrats claim the agreement has been made. Let’s hope Republicans don’t fall for supporting a bad bill. No bill is better than a bad bill.

** Note: I identified Lankford as a Democrat in the first paragraph. That has been corrected. – Karen