Why are Republicans attacking Lankford on border bill? What we know

Amid the ongoing immigration crisis, Oklahoma County Republicans on Saturday censured U.S. Sen. James Lankford for his work in crafting a bipartisan deal to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.

The overwhelming vote to censure the senior Republican senator came at a party convention in Oklahoma City attended by an estimated 225 members of the GOP.

The censure came a month after the border package died on the Senate floor.

Why did Lankford take up the bipartisan border bill?

House Republicans tapped Lankford to negotiate the bipartisan border deal.

Lankford and his fellow negotiators spent months on the package as the southern border buckled with immigrants.

In December, there were 302,034 encounters at the southern border, or an  average of 9,743 a day, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

What was in the failed border bill Lankford negotiated?

The $118 billion border package addressed the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border and included new aid for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies.

The proposal would have expanded detention capacity while making it harder for people to qualify for asylum.

The legislation would’ve ended a practice known as "catch and release," in which those caught crossing the border illegally are released into the United States while they wait for the government to process their asylum application.

The deal expanded the number of green-card-eligible visas every year for the next five years and guaranteed that children of H1-B visa holders remain eligible for green cards once they turn 21.

The 370-page bill included a three-year policy to shut down the processing of asylum applications from people who crossed illegally if the number of expulsions and apprehensions of migrants reaches a weeklong average of 4,000. It would create a mandated shutdown after a weeklong average of 5,000 or more.

The bill included a supplemental aid package requested by President Joe Biden for foreign conflicts, which would have appropriated $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel and $10 billion for humanitarian aid, including in Gaza.

What role did Donald Trump play in killing border deal?

In the weeks leading up to the border package vote in February, former President Donald Trump, leveraging his popularity with GOP voters, lobbied Republicans in Congress to oppose the deal.

Trump has made it clear he plans to make immigration a central platform for his 2024 reelection bid.

He posted to Truth Social that he opposed a border package “unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION” at the southern border.

On the  "The Dan Bongino Show," Trump targeted Lankford by saying the bill was “very bad” for his career.

Ahead of the vote on the bill, many Republicans called it dead on arrival.

Lankford was one of only four Republicans to vote in favor of the package.

Biden blamed Trump for the bill failing to move forward, saying "He'd rather weaponize this issue than actually solve it."

Lankford has previously opposed Trump

Lankford voted to certify the 2020 presidential election results amid Trump’s claims that the election was rigged.

His vote followed the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot in which mobs of Trump supporters sought to stop Biden’s victory from being formalized.

“There was a thought that there would be several states that would have challenges … But I was never going to challenge more than one because if you start challenging multiple states, you’re making obvious: I’m trying to overturn this election. I wasn’t trying to overturn this election.”

During a Sunday appearance on CNN, Lankford discussed the border crisis, President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address and his endorsement of Trump for the 2024 presidency.

“There’s just no contest between the two of which one’s more focused on national security issues, which one’s more focused on actually securing the border,” Lankford said.

Lankford's response to GOP attacks over border bill

Some members of the Oklahoma Republican Party met in January to censure Lankford over what they called his "open border deal." The state party's chair, Nathan Dahm, later said the meeting was illegal and the censure was not an official position of the Oklahoma GOP.

Oklahoma County GOP Chair Ken Warner told The Oklahoman that Saturday’s censure vote against Lankford was because of details in the border bill.

"It's really because he's said he's willing to allow 5,000 illegals ... per day," Warner said. "That was part of the border bill. ... That was one of the things in there."

Lankford has complained the deal has been misunderstood.

"It would be absolutely absurd for me to agree to 5,000 people a day. This bill focuses on getting us to zero illegal crossings a day," he told Fox News in January. "This is not about letting 5,000 people in a day. ... This is set up for, if you have a rush of people coming at the border, the border closes down. No one gets in."

After the deal died, Lankford said from the Senate floor:

"What's been told has been false, day after day. I've had a few folks that have said, 'If I can't get everything, I want nothing.' I don't find most Americans are that way in their day-to-day life. Americans are ticked off that this is not resolved, and they expect us to get things done. So why don't we do that?"

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Fallout continues over border bill US Sen. James Lankford negotiated