Senator Lankford discusses concerns over US-Mexico border

Oklahoma US Senator James Lankford spoke about the US-Mexico border impact issues on Oklahoma at a press conference Friday.

Lankford said he believed billions of taxpayer dollars were wasted paying contractors not to build a border wall.

“We pay people around $ 3 million a day to sit next to the steel that has already been delivered. To sit next to it to make sure it isn’t. not stolen. stolen by actually installing it, “said Senator Lankford.

Lankford says a total of $ 2 billion has been spent to keep the materials. He also said he was seeing new data showing more and more people were crossing the border illegally every month.

“I understand why a million people this year are trying to come here, even though they literally have to break in to get here because it’s the biggest country in the world. But we also make a million people a year who go through the process legally and we want to continue to speed up the legal process and be able to deal with the illegal process, ”Lankford said.

“I think people who come to the United States to seek safety and, of course, also to work should be allowed to do so. And they should also be able to have the flexibility and the ability to return home, ”said Linda Allegro, of the New Sanctuary Empowerment Center in Tulsa.

Allegro believes the recent changes in the Biden administration’s border policing are having a positive impact on Tulsa.

Lankford said people entering the country illegally have a direct impact on employment, which is one of the biggest concerns of his constituents, but Allegro takes a different view.

“So we see these people coming in now. And that’s a good thing. How many businesses here, locally, restaurants, construction, landscaping, hotel and hospitality – they don’t have workers,” Allegro said.

Lankford said when the Biden administration took power in January, they were working on a 60-day border study. He said they are still awaiting the results of this study.