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Posted: Jul 26, 2019 12:32 PMUpdated: Jul 26, 2019 1:24 PM

Sen. Lankford Releases Video on Visit to the Border

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Garrett Giles

U.S. Senator for Oklahoma James Lankford has released a video to show his Sunday trip to the US-Mexico border. During the video, Lankford outlines the care that Customs and Border Protection is providing, how Mexican cartels are manipulating loopholes in US immigration laws to smuggle people into the country, a ride-a-long with CBP, and solutions needed to address the crisis at the border.

In the video, Sen. Lankford said CBP does not know how many immigrants they will see at the border each day. He said it can range from 10 to 1,000. They also do not know if they are dealing with children or adults when they arrive.

It is also pointed out that none of the facilities at the border are set-up to handle thousands of people. The facilities are set-up for legal crossings, but it's difficult when so many people line-up to cross into America legally each day.

On Sunday, July 21, 2019, Lankford toured the Rio Grande Valley sector of the southern border, near McAllen, Texas, with Senators Joni Ernst and Bill Cassidy, who are also featured in the video.

Lankford requested the tour in order to provide oversight of facility conditions and operations and further assess the areas Congress needs to address in our immigration, asylum, and detention laws. He said if there wasn't already a wall in place in McAllen, immigrants would just be able to run into a business in America that sits just a few feet away from the border.

The CBP said the wall is effective in slowing immigration down. That helps them to take the proper steps so they can get people into the country legally.

During a floor speech on Wednesday, Lankford told the story of a three-year-old migrant boy, who was found along the US-Mexico border after he was abandoned by the cartels, as they were smuggling people over the border, and the only information available about the child when he was apprehended by CBP was a name and an out-of-service phone number written on his shoes. He detailed the care provided by CBP officers as one example of how CBP has had to shift its mission of border patrol to humanitarian care.

If you wish to see the video posted by Sen. Lankford, you can click here. Photos of the visit have also been shared. To view those, click here.

(Photo courtesy: Sen. James Lankford).


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