U.S. Sen. James Lankford said Tuesday he still hopes to resolve the status of undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children, despite President Donald Trump’s declaration via tweet on Sunday there will be no such deal.
“I have a bipartisan group in the Senate that I’m working personally with,” Lankford said during a series of public meetings at a Greenwood District sandwich shop. “I’ve been on the phone with some of them this week and said, ‘I know what the president tweeted out. I’m still on board. I still want to get this fixed.’ They’ve all said they’re in the same spot.”
Many of the undocumented individuals are covered by an Obama administration policy called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. It prevents them from being deported but leaves their immigration status in limbo.
Trump has said he will end the DACA program if Congress does not provide a legislative fix. Lankford said Tuesday he believes courts will soon rule that Trump has the authority to abandon the policy.
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“The president has actually been pretty forward-leaning on dealing with DACA until this weekend, and I have no idea what happened on Easter,” Lankford said.
Trump’s tweets and what some described as his erratic behavior were the most common topics during a series of 30-minute “community conversations” at the Subway shop near the corner of Greenwood Avenue and Archer Street.
Groups of 35 or less rotated through the restaurant for more than three hours. Lankford said he favors the unusual format because it allows for more discussion and personal contact.
No fan of Trump’s sometimes bombastic tweets and public statements, Lankford agreed with a member of the audience who said she found the president’s style “unsettling.”
“The best I can tell, this is just the president’s style of negotiating,” Lankford said. “This is how he made real estate deals, and this is how he’s governing.”
The most emotional questions dealt with Trump’s dealings with Russia and special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. One woman pressed Lankford for assurance that he would take action if Trump fires Mueller.
Lankford said he would “most definitely respond” if that happens, but believes it’s very unlikely. He said Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey made the problem bigger for the president, and firing Mueller would make it bigger yet.
“I do not believe he’s going to fire Robert Mueller,” Lankford said. “It doesn’t even accomplish anything. If you fire Robert Mueller, this situation gets worse for him.”
