Lankford: 'It Is Easier to Get a Job in America If You Illegally Cross' (January 25, 2023)

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., took to the Senate floor with a simple comparison. “If you are living in another country and you want to work in America, it is easier to get a job in America if you illegally cross,” he said. “That is not just me saying that. That is the data saying that” [1].

A legal work visa, he said, took six and a half months. “But if you illegally cross our border and you are labeled with” parole, “you get a work permit within 3 to 4 weeks” [1].

“Literally, this administration is incentivizing illegal activity with how they are setting up the work permits,” Lankford said [1].

The video above shows Lankford’s Jan. 25, 2023, floor speech. Quotes are from the Congressional Record [1].

The Six-Month Wait

Lankford walked through it step by step. “If you are outside the United States and you apply for a work visa and want to be able to come in in a legal, normal process, to be able to go through,” he said, the wait was six and a half months [1].

Most illegal crossers, he said, were being released on parole: “the mass number of people are labeled with” it “when they illegally cross our border” [1].

“So you could legally do this and wait” six and a half months, he said, “or you could illegally do this and you get it in 3 to 4 weeks” [1].

Yuma’s 310,000

Lankford had just come back from the border. “Seven of us, 2 weeks ago, in a bipartisan codel, went to the southwest border, and we spent a couple of days there in the El Paso area and then over into Yuma, AZ,” he said [1].

Yuma was overwhelmed. “Yuma, AZ, 3 years ago, in that area, had 8,100 people illegally cross in that year,” Lankford said. “This past year, Yuma, AZ, had 310,000 people illegally cross the area” [1].

“If you have eaten a salad in the past year, you have eaten something from Yuma, AZ, because they grow the vast majority of the lettuce for our country,” he said [1].

He compared it with New York City. “May I remind you, the mayor of New York is worried about an additional 40 to 50,000 people in New York City and having a difficult time absorbing that. Yuma, AZ, is trying to figure out how to absorb 310,000 people coming through their community” [1].

”Until This Year”

Border Patrol usually gets a break at Christmas, Lankford said, “until this year.” “This year, there was a record number of people illegally crossing in December. So instead of going down, it actually went up when a quarter million people illegally crossed our southwest border in 1 month” [1].

The crush pulled agents off other work. As Border Patrol put it to him: “While we are managing this massive number of people coming from all over the world across that border, we can’t go interdict drugs, we can’t go interdict other things because we don’t have the manpower to be able to do both” [1].

”Doesn’t Actually Mean Removal”

He dismissed the administration’s promise of more “expedited removal.” “Except, when we ran the numbers to be able to look at it, at how many people are actually removed who get expedited removal, the number came back 7 percent. So expedited removal doesn’t actually mean removal,” Lankford said [1].

The crossers came from everywhere. On the trip, the senators watched mounted agents chase down two men. “Those two individuals were Chinese nationals who were making their way across the border illegally at night, running from the Border Patrol,” he said [1].

By the Numbers

3 to 4 weeks: the wait for a work permit after an illegal crossing and parole, per Lankford [1].
6 1/2 months: the wait for a legal work visa, per Lankford [1].
8,100 to 310,000: illegal crossings in the Yuma area, three years apart [1].
250,000: illegal crossings at the southwest border in December 2022, by his count [1].
7%: share of expedited-removal cases actually removed, by his numbers [1].

What Happened Next

Trump declared a border emergency. On Jan. 20, 2025, President Donald Trump proclaimed “that a national emergency exists at the southern border of the United States” [2].

The parole programs ended. On March 25, 2025, DHS announced it “is terminating the categorical parole programs for inadmissible aliens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela” [3].

Work permits now cost money. Trump’s July 4, 2025, law requires a fee from “any alien paroled into the United States for any initial application for employment authorization,” starting at $550. “Each initial employment authorization shall be valid for a period of 1 year or for the duration of the alien’s parole, whichever is shorter,” and the fees “shall not be waived or reduced” [4].

No more automatic extensions. On Oct. 14, 2026, DHS finalized a rule to “end the practice of automatically extending the validity of employment authorization documents” in certain categories. “Ending the automatic extension of EADs enhances benefit integrity and prioritizes the proper vetting and screening of aliens,” the notice said [5].

For Lankford’s questioning of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas three months later, see HYGO News’ page on detention space and the 2033 hearings.