Murphy, Lankford highlight border divide, as poll shows importance to voters
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Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) illustrated how vast the partisan divide over U.S. border security remains during separate TV appearances Sunday, with each criticizing the other party's stance for a lack of progress on the issue.
Why it matters: Americans see immigration and the border as the second-most important issue currently facing the country, with inflation ranking first, according to a new CBS News/YouGov poll published Sunday.
- A new Wall Street Journal poll published earlier this week found that 64% of voters disapprove of President Biden's handling of border security.
Driving the news: Lawmakers are attempting to pass an emergency national security spending package that would include additional funding for Ukraine, Israel and border security.
- Demands from some Republicans that border security reforms to tighten U.S. asylum and parole laws for migrants have been met with opposition from some Democrats.
- It's becoming increasingly unlikely that a deal will be reached before the Senate adjourns for the holidays later this week.
State of play: Murphy, the lead Democratic negotiator in the talks, slammed Republican border demands as "unreasonable" during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday.
- Murphy acknowledged that "some pretty big differences" remain between the two sides in the negotiations and sought to underscore the high stakes of the talks.
- "If Republicans don't get reasonable in the next 24 to 48 hours, Russia is going to march into Ukraine. China is going to be given a green light to invade Taiwan," he said.
Between the lines: While Murphy stressed the that Democrats' opposition to shutting down the border completely to people "legitimately" claiming asylum, he said they are willing to discuss "tightening some of the rules, so that you don't have 10,000 people arriving a day."
- Murphy also predicted the White House would get more involved in the talks this week.
The other side: Lankford, the lead Republican negotiator, took to CBS' "Face the Nation" to criticize the Biden administration for trying to "just slow down a little bit of the flow" of illegal border crossings rather than stopping it.
- "We have to deal with the capacity issues," Lankford said.
- Lankford also refuted the notion of passing Ukraine aid separate from border security.
The bottom line: Both senators acknowledged the limits of solving the border issue in its entirety.
- "We are not going to solve the entire problem of immigration between now and the end of the year," Murphy said.
- "We can't do everything on the border. But we can do the things to actually begin to control the border so that the United States is in control of our boundaries," Lankford said.
