President Joe Biden’s impending executive order to combat illegal immigration is expected to place limitations on the number of migrants who can cross the southern border each day.
The long-awaited executive action could be announced as early as Tuesday.
Reports based on interviews with people familiar with plans for the new policies claim that the border will close once crossings reach 4,000 per day over the course of a week.
This would represent the most restrictive border policy implemented by Biden since he took office in January 2021, and comes after three and a half years of pressure from Republicans for the White House to take action to address rising illegal immigration.
Biden has repeatedly said he needs help from Congress to stem the record flow of illegal immigration along the US-Mexico border. But his tone appears to have changed amid plans to take unilateral steps to address the crisis just five months before the presidential election.
President Joe Biden plans to announce an executive order on Tuesday that would limit the number of migrants who can cross the southern border each day if it reaches 4,000 a day.
Despite blocking border crossings, the United States will continue to allow asylum seekers to schedule appointments at border ports of entry using a mobile app known as CBP One.
Biden’s Department of Homeland Security currently accepts about 1,400 immigrants each day through that program.
Republicans claim the executive action is a “stunt” and insist Biden is finally taking action because he was forced to face the reality of how important the border and illegal immigration are to voters heading to the polls in November.
“Don’t be fooled by Biden’s latest border move, which is nothing more than a political stunt,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) posted on X. “He’s trying to look tough on immigration because he’s losing ground.” in the polls.’
He added: “Remember, he has already let in more than 10 million illegal aliens, and his new executive order will likely lead to at least 1.5 million more illegal crossings over the next year.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) also wrote on
Biden’s order would echo policies that former President Donald Trump began using in 2018 to block illegal immigration at the southern border, a policy that was challenged several times by Democrats in federal courts.
But House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) says it’s “too little, too late” to address the issue now, saying Biden and his DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have taken another 64 actions that have further opened the southern border and worsened the illegal immigration crisis.
It comes after years of pressure from Republicans demanding measures to quell the southern border crisis and just five months before the November elections. In the photo: Migrants wait between Mexico and El Paso, Texas, to request asylum in the US.
Previously, the Biden White House called on Congress to pass new laws to expand presidential authority beyond the border. The Democratic administration says Congress must act to allow action to be taken to address the problem.
A bipartisan border deal failed to get off the ground earlier this year and the Senate voted again in May against the border measure, with both Democrats and Republicans uniting against it.
The plan now is for Biden to unilaterally enact parts of the Senate deal, including denying entry to immigrants after certain thresholds are met.
The sources said that specifically, the White House is weighing a policy that would limit the number of migrant encounters to 4,000 per day for a week, 28,000 in total.
It’s unclear what would happen when that threshold is reached.
A similar policy was at the center of the failed Senate deal, but Republicans criticized the measure for not doing enough to crack down on illegal immigration.
The White House hopes to use the authority of Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to move forward with Biden’s executive order.
The National Guard returns a group of about 100 migrants to Mexico near El Paso, Texas, on May 30. Under Joe Biden, nearly 8 million immigrants have arrived in the United States in just three and a half years.
Biden is reportedly considering using Section 212(f) to restrict migration, which does not require congressional approval.
That law gives presidents leeway to block the entry of certain immigrants if it would be “detrimental” to national interests.
Former President Trump repeatedly relied on that section of the law to prevent certain immigrants from crossing illegally and seeking asylum at the southern border.
Presidents using section 212(f) to restrict immigration do not require congressional approval.
But Biden has repeatedly said he wants new laws from Congress to fix the border.
In pushing for passage of the twice-defeated Senate bill, Biden said in January: “It would give me, as president, new emergency authority to close the border when it becomes overwhelmed.”
“And if I were given that authority, I would use it the day I signed the bill,” his January statement continued.
But it appears that the White House has since decided that they can act alone, as Republicans have accused, and will enact reforms this week, although the timing of the reported executive action is opaque.
The administration has reportedly been trying to use this power for months, and now sources say an executive order could come this week.
The White House ‘continues to explore a number of policy options and we remain committed to taking steps to address our broken immigration system,’ spokesman Angelo Fernández Hernández said recently.
“While Congressional Republicans chose to hinder increased border enforcement, President Biden will not stop fighting to deliver the resources that border and immigration personnel need to secure our border,” he added.
But when asked Sunday about reversing Biden’s election-year border policy, Republican President Mike Johnson criticized the administration’s mulled move, saying it is “too little, too late.”
“He is desperately trying to show the American people that he wants to address the problem that he created,” Johnson said.
‘We documented 64 specific actions that President Biden and DHS Secretary Mayorkas took…over the course of three and a half years, beginning the first day President Biden (took office), to open the border.’
“They did it intentionally, it has had catastrophic effects on our country that we will live with for decades to come.”
President Mike Johnson claims Biden has “engineered” the migrant crisis and says it’s “too little, too late” to take action.
Johnson has spent his few months in power pressuring the White House to take executive action on the border.
And now that they are, he stated that it only comes because it is an election year.
“He wants to issue some kind of executive order, I guess to show that he really cares about the issue,” Johnson said. “The only reason you do it is because polls say it’s the biggest problem in America.”
‘And the first question that comes up in almost every public forum is what’s going on with that open border and why would President Biden allow it? He did more than allow it, he designed it and everyone knows it.”