'This Doesn't Deter Anyone': Lankford Exposes Biden's New Border 'Guardrail', Agents Getting Shot At
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) traveled to the Texas-Mexico border this past week to illustrate how the Biden administration is taking a soft approach the ongoing immigration crisis.
In a video posted to social media on Friday, Lankford pointed out the difference between the border wall built during Donald Trump's presidency and what is currently standing today.
Live from the southwest border pic.twitter.com/UNxAjhEoPx
— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) January 28, 2022
"There's been some new construction that's happened along the southern border because there are large areas where there are no fencing at all," the senator said. "Last year I was in this area and I was showing you some of the Trump wall that has a 12-foot concrete section with an 18-foot wall on top of it."
Lankford reveals that the so-called "new wall construction" that has been resumed by President Biden includes a concrete wall that is half the height of the former wall, along with a short section of fence on top that he says resembles "a guardrail," not a fence.
"Maybe six feet tall of concrete and then another six-foot section on top of it so definitely not a fence that would actually keep anyone out to say the least," Lankford revealed. "They're calling it more guardrail than they are actual fencing on it. This is the challenge we have in trying to deal with basic infrastructure."
He continued, "The folks that are here along the border, they need personnel, they need policy changes that they can actually implement the law. They need infrastructure that will help deter people ... this doesn't deter anyone. In fact, I'm not sure this would slow anyone down in the process."
Trump’s Wall v Biden’s Fence pic.twitter.com/BWsMlwa7Q2
— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) January 29, 2022
The senator noted that employees with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) want towers, cameras, and lights installed to help make their job of defending the border manageable.
"In these areas, there are no lights, there's no cameras and there's no even passable roads to be able to get to people. This is basic border security," he said. "I wanted you to see just how sad the new construction that's going on really is along our southern border. This has changed dramatically from two years ago when we were putting up fences that would actually stop people. This is decorative, this is not going to stop anyone," Lankford concluded.
In a new statement, Lankford called out Biden's open border policies after CBP released its report that showed a "staggering number" of illegal crossings, counterfeit drugs, and materials that were smuggled across the southern border as of Dec. 2021.
"CBP encountered over two million migrants at the southwest border in 2021. That is a staggering number," said Lankford. "The daily and monthly numbers remain overwhelming for our border law enforcement whose hands they've told me 'are tied' by this administration."
The report indicated that $3.31 billion in counterfeit goods were seized last fiscal year, which was a 153 percent increase from the previous year. Heroin-related arrests rose 113 percent in December due to cartels flooding the southern border with drugs.
CBP also encountered 178,840 individuals at the southern border last month which included 12,000 unaccompanied minors and 51,000 families. In total, agents confronted over two million individuals in 2021.
In a follow-up video from Friday night, Sen. Lankford explained that he was watching rafts come across a river and drop off people who then scurried off into the nearby brush.
Senator Lankford on FB Live from the Texas-Mexico Border pic.twitter.com/pMNymcDI8E
— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) January 29, 2022
"The incredibly frustrating thing is the policies that the Biden administration has put into place is actually encouraging this because they're releasing single males now into the country. They continue to be able to process people into the country in larger and larger numbers."
Lankford noted that border patrol agents were engaged in a "cat and mouse game" while trying to track migrants as they illegally entered the U.S.
"It's really just a game where the mice are winning all the time. Our folks in the border patrol and the folks that are here doing law enforcement, they're the ones that are handcuffed and can't actually enforce the law here," he said. "They become processors of people to release them in the country. It's becoming an incredibly hostile place where border patrol agents have been shot at recently. Border patrol agents have been attacked and individuals are moving across in record numbers."
He said, historically, the number of migrants trying to cross the border is usually low this time of year.
"The numbers that are coming across this January are equaling the numbers that we had last summer when we had record-high numbers. So we're getting more than double the number of people illegally crossing this January, last December, last November than what we had just a year before," Lankford explained. "The chaos at this border continues to accelerate. This is not getting better ... it's getting worse."
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