President Joe Biden has been "facilitating immigration" since taking office, and all the pathways for immigrants are leading to the interior of the United States, Sen. James Lankford said on Newsmax on Wednesday.
"There are so many variables in this process," the Oklahoma Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "If you cross the port of entry, and you've contacted the administration ahead of time using the CBP-One app, you're given parole. You're released out in the country. You're given a job, an opportunity to be able to get a job, a work permit within a month, and you're released out.
"But even when people cross between the ports of entry, they're treated a "different way" but still released out into the country," Lankford said. "If you're a minor, if you're an adult, if [you have] family, there seems to be all these different ways they're doing it."
As a result, 6 million people have crossed the border in the past three years under Biden, he added.
"We have all these different pathways, but they all lead towards the interior of the country," said Lankford, noting that this year, only about 100,000 people have been deported.
The methods for immigration were not only streamlined under former President Donald Trump but also his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, Lankford added.
"If we take a single year under the Biden administration, it includes more than four years under the Obama administration of how many people are crossing the border," said Lankford.
The time it takes to hold hearings under Biden is also a problem, he said, because under Trump, a hearing would be held quickly or the migrant in question would have remained in Mexico.
"The vast majority of people don't qualify for asylum," he said. "They're trying to come for a job opportunity. I don't blame them. It's the greatest country in the world. I don't blame anyone in the world for wanting to come, but you have to come a legal way."
Lankford also commented on the news that House Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer has subpoenaed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and others to question them on claims they tipped off Hunter Biden's legal team about the investigation into him.
Lankford said that "everyone" should be able to get access to information on the matter, but getting details from the Biden administration and the DHS has been an issue.
"When I ask for information from them, it takes them months and months and months to be able to turn it over," the senator said. "When we all know that information is there, the story gets worse the longer that they hold out on it. It is better if they go ahead and just release this information now because we know it exists."
Lankford also on Wednesday criticized Biden for his actions during Tuesday's Medal of Honor ceremony honoring a Vietnam War veteran.
Biden quickly left the ceremony after he'd fastened the nation's highest military honor around the neck of retired Army Capt. Larry Taylor, 81, and left the room before the closing benediction was read.
"Let me first congratulate Captain Taylor," said Lankford. "That's a very big deal to have a Medal of Honor recipient there. That's a huge sacrifice that he personally made and put his own life on the line to be able to save the lives of others."
But Biden "just walks off stage, so we don't know what was in his mind at that point," he said. "He looked like the absent-minded professor. He was not supposed to walk out at that moment. He didn't look like he knew where he was going or what he was doing. He just left."
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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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