Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Senator James Lankford (R-OK) said he is concerned that a result of the debate over President Donald Trump immigration policies is we are “demonizing law enforcement folks.”
Lankford said, “I would prefer the president would step out and say a lot of these folks are coming for reasons — they want to flee into an area where they have greater economic opportunities. Every family wants to be able to see that for their family, but there are also some individuals that are there. On average, every day DHS stops or interdicts ten people that are on the terror watch list trying to come into the country.”
He continued, “So I have a real concern that we’re demonizing law enforcement folks that really are trying to be able to do their job because there are very real threats, but the vast majority of individuals are coming for economic reasons. That is why they’re coming from Central America, and they’re not fleeing to Costa Rica, Belize or Ecuador who also have great asylum laws, they’re coming to the United States because they want the economic opportunities. Not just asylum and they’re trying to come for economic gains, and I don’t blame them for that, but to tell you the truth, 1.1 million people a year become citizens of the United States legally.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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