The lead GOP negotiator for the Senate border security bill, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., responded to widespread criticism of the bipartisan legislation as some warn it could be "dead on arrival" if it reaches the House.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., alongside other prominent GOP critics, have voiced their opposition to the $118 billion spending package, claiming it doesn't go far enough to curb illegal immigration.
But Lankford urged critics to read the bill, arguing it will create a "faster and stronger system" of deportation and will "flip the script" on Biden's immigration policy.
SENATE RELEASES LONG-AWAITED BORDER LEGISLATION, MAJOR ASYLUM CHANGES
"Are we, as Republicans, going to have press conferences and complain the border is bad and then intentionally leave it open after the worst month in American history in December?" Lankford questioned during "Fox & Friends" on Monday. "Now we've got to actually determine, are we going to just complain about things or are we going to actually address and change as many things as we can?"
"If we have the shot -- and it's amazing to me, if I go back two months ago and say we had the shot under a Democrat president to dramatically increase detention beds, deportation flights, lock down the border, to be able to change the asylum laws, to be able to accelerate the process, no one would have believed it."
"And now no one actually wants to be able to fix it, says, 'I don't want to even debate it. I don't want to discuss it.' We have to decide, as Republicans, what are we going to actually do about the border and leave it open or actually leave it closed?" he continued.
He has repeatedly argued that a critically misunderstood portion of the bill stems from how illegal crossings would be handled.
"This authority is a 5,000 authority to say if you get to 5,000, which we've been there every single day except for seven in the last four months, that it completely closes the border down. It deports everyone. It changes the paradigm from right now – what the Biden administration is doing is catching and releasing everyone – to actually catching and deporting everyone. It literally flips the script on it," said Lankford, calling out critics on the right for making "absurd" claims about the provision.
The deal, which took months to negotiate, is aimed at gaining control of an asylum system that has been overwhelmed by historic numbers of migrants coming to the border. The bill proposes an overhaul to the system with tougher and quicker enforcement measures.
If the number of illegal border crossings reaches above 5,000 daily for a five-day average, an expulsion authority would automatically kick in so that migrants are sent back to Mexico without an opportunity to make an asylum claim. If the number reaches 4,000, presidential administrations would have the option of using the expulsion authority.
President Biden, referencing the authority, has said he would use it to "shut down the border" as soon as the bill is signed into law.
Republicans spent last week campaigning against the bill before the text was even released, with Speaker Johnson warning the package was "dead on arrival."
"I've seen enough," Johnson wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "This bill is even worse than we expected, and won't come close to ending the border catastrophe the President has created. As the lead Democrat negotiator proclaimed: Under this legislation, 'the border never closes.'"
"If this bill reaches the House, it will be dead on arrival," the speaker continued.
"People have got to be able to read it, go through it themselves. Don't just go off of Facebook post somewhere what the bill says," Lankford told Kilmeade. "This dramatically changes asylum and dramatically changes deportations. We no longer have a 10-year backlog. It builds more wall. Those are the key things that it actually does. But read it for yourselves. Don't just believe what's online."
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., also criticized the text after it was released on Sunday, warning the proposal will "do more harm than good" when it comes to efforts to secure the southern border.
"Will it actually secure the border? And even more importantly, will it not hamper or hinder or hamstring the next president who might actually want to secure the border?," Johnson asked host Trey Gowdy on Sunday.
"These thresholds, that [are] set at unreasonably high levels, that could really hamstring a future president. So that's what we need to evaluate as we're going through this bill."
Fox News' Landon Mion contributed to this report.
