Inhofe: ‘Maybe the necessity of the wall isn’t as great as it was’

TULSA — Thursday, Oklahoma U.S. Senator James Inhofe traveled to Matamoros, Mexico on a fact-finding visit.

He called KRMG from the border, and said he’d uncovered some surprising information.

The number of  large, multi-family groups coming across the border has dropped significantly.

Under the Obama administration, he says, those groups would turn themselves in, be taken to a detention center, then simply disappear.

“The group families are no longer coming,” Inhofe told KRMG Thursday, “and we’re talking about hundreds of people that we were paying for, taking care of, and then turning loose in the United States.”

But without a change in policy, just a change in how that police is enforced, the numbers have fallen off significantly.

“And that’s from doing absolutely nothing,” he added, “other than the fact that this president has been talking about policies he’s going to implement.”

Another category of illegal border crossings has also dropped off, even more.

"Those people who fall into the category that are apprehended, or deemed inadmissible - in other words, the more corrupt people - that has dropped, in the month of March, more than 64 percent from what it was before.”

That has led the Senator to a conclusion that may startle some.

“Maybe the necessity of a wall is not as great as it was,” he said. “I guess what I’m saying is a lot of the problem, the majority of the problem, is kind of taking care of itself at this point.”

He said when he returns to Washington D.C. next week, he’ll take up the topic with Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

“Maybe a policy is going to be changed, maybe it’s not going to be a wall after all,” he said. “But I don’t know that, I won’t know that until I get back.”

He emphasized that he wasn’t speaking for the administration.

However, he added, “the problem that is leading to the necessity of a wall is not as great as it was prior to this administration.”