Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said Sunday the Trump administration should be more transparent about the way it is dealing with migrant children held in detention, and said President Trump’s divisive rhetoric about illegal immigration was making it harder for Congress to solve the problem.
“I don’t, actually,” Lankford said on NBC when asked whether he thought the White House had been “fully transparent” about how it is trying to address the crisis at the U.S. border.
Lankford said he’s worried that Trump was “demonizing” immigrants illegally crossing the border, given that most are seeking a better quality of life and don’t pose a danger to national security.
[Related: Trump: Democrats want illegal immigrants ‘to pour into and infest’ the US]
“I would prefer [if] the president would step back and say a lot of these are folks who are coming here for economic reasons. They want to be able to flee into an area where they have greater economic opportunities,” he said.
But Lankford defended Trump against complaints from lawmakers who are trying to assess detention facilities around the country without an appointment, and said the Obama administration had a similar appointment-based policy.
[Kirstjen Nielsen: Obama separated immigrant families too]
“The challenge is you shouldn’t just allow anyone to be able to come in at any time to be able to view a spot where there are children present. I think that is entirely reasonable,” Lankford said.
Several Democratic members of Congress were denied immediate access to detention facilities in Texas and New Jersey earlier in June as part of a “Father’s Day Of Action.” Reporters have also criticized that White House for limiting press access to the centers.
But Lankford said heightened scrutiny doesn’t help officials who are trying to administer these facilities.
“On average, every day DHS stops or interdicts 10 people that are on the terror watch list trying to come into the country,” he said. “And 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.”
