Republicans asked for a border security bill. Do they still want it?

As James Lankford and his Senate colleagues inch closer to an agreement on border security and immigration, he's facing strong pushback from members of his own party and loyalists of former President Donald Trump who don't want to see President Joe Biden "claim" a political win nine months before Election Day.

Trump has railed against the bipartisan effort in an attempt to keep the issue alive during his campaign for the White House. Then on Saturday, some members of the Oklahoma Republican Party's State Committee voted to censure Lankford in a gathering later blasted by the state GOP chair as an illegal meeting that wasn't properly scheduled.

This comes four months after Republicans demanded action at the border by linking the issue with financial support for Israel and Ukraine in their ongoing wars.

Lankford responded to these provocations in a series of media interviews this week, saying he's committed to doing something now, not later.

Sen. James Lankford says border is national security issue

For Lankford, it's clear why action is needed now. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported an average of about 10,000 illegal crossings a day in December. During the same month, 49 people whose names are on the terrorist watch list were stopped by Border Patrol.

"We've had tens of thousands of people cross that were declared a national security risk," Lankford told The Oklahoman. "The question is what are we going to do about it as a country?"

Despite the urgency, there is evidence that members of Lankford's own party are working against him.

Trump has leaned into the immigration issue and made it one of his biggest political talking points. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, acknowledged privately to other Republican senators recently that Trump's opposition to the bipartisan deal being brokered now puts the party in a dilemma.

It certainly puts any immediate improvement of the border situation in jeopardy.

It’s not clear whether interference from the right spells doom for any hope of a solution. Some conservative senators say they sensed McConnell planned to abandon a possible deal, but others say negotiations still have a path forward, despite the politics, USA Today reported.

The next few days and weeks could be pivotal for the border question as the federal government and state law enforcement fight legal battles against each other, and as conservative activists call for citizens to protest at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The demise of a bipartisan border deal would deny Biden the chance to claim a victory in addressing surging migration at the southern border — a topic that Republicans have hammered Biden about throughout his presidency. It would also let Trump continue his political attacks on border policies and immigration.

"There's political pressure to say, 'If we fix the border now, then Biden's suddenly gonna get off the hook and it'll help his presidential campaign,'" Lankford said.

Lankford acknowledged that just about everyone in Congress has their own idea about how to solve the immigration situation. He said some people argue that the president needs more authority to secure the border, and some claim that Biden has enough authority but simply won't use it.

"And others are saying it's a presidential campaign so don't do anything. But we still have this huge national security risk hanging out there and thousands of people crossing every day that we have no idea where they're going," Lankford said. "It is a big, noisy stew pot."

Why Sen. James Lankford is part of border negotiations

Lankford is at the forefront of negotiations because, technically, it's his job. As the highest-ranking Republican with a border management portfolio on the Homeland Security Committee, he's waded deep in policy discussions for years.

And in October when Biden asked Congress for more money to support Israel and Ukraine, the president also asked for more funding for border operations.

"We responded back that the administration doesn't need funding. They need to change the law," Lankford said. "More money to be able to process more migrants is not the answer. We actually need to be able to change the (law) to increase enforcement."

Eventually, the White House joined negotiations. In recent days, Biden publicly sided with the effort, saying he will use the powers granted to him in the legislation.

Under the package being crafted in the Senate, the Department of Homeland Security would have the power to shut the border down when the number of migrants seeking to cross without prior authorization exceeds a daily average of 4,000 over a one-week period, CNN and other media outlets reported. If migrant border crossings surge past an average of 5,000 a day, Homeland Security would actively close the border to migrants crossing illegally.

"And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law," Biden said Friday.

But like many things in Congress, the politics of one thing influence the politics of another. The border deal is part of a larger package that includes money to continue U.S. support of allied militaries in the Middle East, eastern Europe and the Indo-Pacific region that includes Taiwan. Still, Lankford is optimistic.

"I think we're getting very, very close," he told The Oklahoman this week.

Any agreement reached by the Senate also would have to pass the Republican-led U.S. House, which adopted its own strict immigration policy last year. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, previously warned that the Senate bill would be dead on arrival.

While Lankford's efforts continue to generate pushback from some Oklahoma Republicans, at least one member of the state's congressional delegation said Lankford is on the right track. Fourth District U.S. Rep. Tom Cole said Lankford was being unfairly criticized for this efforts.

"He is catching so much flak, and it's unfair in my opinion," Cole said. "He's doing heroic work."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Why GOP Sen. James Lankford is facing backlash from Republican Party