Oklahoma County Republicans on Saturday censured U.S. Sen. James Lankford over his work on a failed border security deal.

The overwhelming vote to censure the senior Republican senator came at a party convention in Oklahoma City. “The people have spoken,” the county party chair, Ken Warner, told The Oklahoman.

“It’s really because he’s said he’s willing to allow 5,000 illegals … per day,” Warner said. “That was part of the border bill. … That was one of the things in there.”

He estimated 225 Republicans attended the convention.

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Lankford has worked to craft a bipartisan deal to address the surge in illegal immigration along the nation’s southern border. It has the support of President Joe Biden. It has not advanced, largely because former President Donald Trump has spoken out against it.

Lankford has complained the deal has been misunderstood.

“It would be absolutely absurd for me to agree to 5,000 people a day. This bill focuses on getting us to zero illegal crossings a day,” he told Fox News in January. “This is not about letting 5,000 people in a day. … This is set up for, if you have a rush of people coming at the border, the border closes down. No one gets in.”

Some members of the Oklahoma Republican Party met in January to censure Lankford over what they called his “open border deal.” The state party’s chair, Nathan Dahm, later said the meeting was illegal and the censure was not an official position of the Oklahoma GOP.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma County Republican Party censures US Sen. James Lankford