James Lankford Urges GOP Patience as He Tries to Solve Border ‘Rubik’s Cube’

Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma has taken on one of Congress’s most thankless and politically risky jobs: leading negotiations to overhaul the country’s immigration laws.

Democrats and Republicans agree that a fix is overdue—the last major changes were passed in 1986. Past rounds of talks have gotten nowhere because the issue is so charged and the system so legally complex that any rewrites of the law risk cascading and unintended effects. Now Lankford is one of a trio of senators taking another crack at it, as migrant apprehensions at the Southern U.S. border hit a record 250,000 a month—though prospects for any deal passing Congress appeared to dim over the weekend.