Biden online asylum system an 'open invitation for Chinese spies' to enter US, key senator warns

Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford, who recently visited the U.S.-Mexico border, is warning that President Joe Biden's online asylum system is an "open invitation for Chinese spies" and all of Yemen to enter the U.S.

Under the emerging plans, asylum seekers "can just say, 'I have credible fear,' fly into the country, be here for eight years while they await their hearing," Lankford told Just the News after speaking at the America First Summit last week. "This is an open invitation for Chinese spies to be able to come into the country. It's an open invitation for everyone to come from Yemen, to say it's a war-torn country.

"Immigration is not designed to be just open to anyone who wants to come. Asylum is the same definition as refugee. If you're a refugee, you go to the next safest country, andthcoming you go there. They're turning this on its head, saying if anyone wants to come to America for any reason, just come here, and we'll just take you from everywhere. That's not what we're designed to be able to do." 

Lankford, a member of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, argued that such a system would flood U.S. airports. 

"It will dramatically increase the amount of illegal immigration into our country," he said.

"They're facilitating this catch-and-releasing," Lankford noted, referring to Biden's policy of allowing illegal immigrants who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border to claim asylum to get released into the U.S. to wait for their court date. "We have catch-release at the border, and now they're looking for catch and release to happen at the border and at our airports."

Just the News asked Lankford if DHS officials responded to his concerns during a meeting with lawmakers.

"It's in design, we're discussing it, we're looking at it ... we're trying to evaluate how we're going to do it," he said, paraphrasing the department's responses.

"But they're very clear," Lankford emphasized. "They're planning this asylum system to be able to do asylum from anywhere in the world."