The Hill’s Changemakers: Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.)

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) established himself this year as one of the leading bipartisan dealmakers in the Senate after reaching an agreement with Democratic colleagues and the White House on a border security reform bill. 

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) earlier this year hailed the deal Lankford crafted as a “huge success by any objective standard.” It won the endorsement of the National Border Patrol Council, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Wall Street Journal editorial board. 

Though that deal fell through, Lankford now enters the new 119th Congress as a leading authority on border security, asylum and parole reforms, all of which will be top issues given President-elect Trump’s pledge to secure the border. 

While Trump allies say the incoming president can do a lot by executive authority, they acknowledge he will need Congress to pass legislation to reform the nation’s asylum process, which many Republican lawmakers say is being exploited by millions of migrants coming into the country. 

Lankford said he’s focused on “figuring out how we solve something” at the border. 

He said while Republicans will push a major tax relief package through Congress on party-line votes under the budget reconciliation process, “everything else is going to be done bipartisan.” 

And he predicts Trump will be looking to cut deals with Democrats. 

“Everyone tries to belittle President Trump — he is a dealmaker. He loves to do it. He loves to take hard things and say, ‘Let’s get everybody together and figure it out,’” he said, pointing to the First Step Act, a criminal justice reform bill Trump signed into law during his first term to reduce the size of the federal prison population. 

Lankford said the “asylum loophole is still there, and until we change that in law, there’s nothing you can really do in executive action” to limit or speed up the processing of asylum claims. 

The Oklahoma senator said resolving the status of migrants who came to the country illegally at a young age and are covered under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will be another top issue in the immigration reform debate.