WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — President Joe Biden announced a series of executive actions Tuesday that would limit the flow of migrant illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The changes will allow his administration to close the border between legal ports of entry, meaning border agents could turn away asylum-seekers if crossings surpass a certain number per day. The expected threshold has been frequently exceeded, including this past April.
The president began by noting that he was using executive powers to do what Congress did not, referencing the failure of a bipartisan immigration deal that failed in the Senate twice. The bill had seemed to be on track to pass until former President Donald Trump urged Republicans to vote against it.
"I would have preferred to address this issue through bipartisan legislation because that's the only way to get the kind of system we have now, that's broken, fixed," Biden said. "But Republicans left me no choice."
The Tuesday announcement comes two days after Mexico elected a new president, who will become the first woman president in the country’s 200-year history.
Biden also slammed Trump for his policies, saying immigrants are an important part of America, and he would never refer to them as poisoning the blood of the country, nor would he ban anyone based on religion or send agents to pull people from their homes for deportations.
"The Statue of Liberty is not some relic of American history. It stands for who we are in the United States," Biden said.
He also slammed Congress for failing to take action, saying those who refuse to pass legislation that would fund border agents, immigration court and asylum officers are not serious about taking on the immigration crisis.
The executive action will make it easier for immigration officials to remove migrants and lighten the burden on the asylum-seekers, senior administration officials confirmed to NewsNation.
People who illegally cross the southern border will generally be ineligible for asylum, barring unusual circumstances. They will only be able to see an asylum officer if they have a credible fear of returning to their country of origin. The new standards for the threat of violence or torture in the country of origin are now higher than before.
"If an individual chooses not to use legal pathways, they will be restricted from receiving asylum and staying in the U.S.," Biden said.
The new guidelines will be in place until it is determined that the levels of illegal crossings have been consistently low, under 2,500 for seven consecutive days.
The measures will increase the speed and scope of the Border Patrol’s ability to stop unlawful entries. The suspension of entry will not apply to those who attempt to enter lawfully, including through the use of the CBP One phone app.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security has proposed a rule that migrants who pose a public safety or national security risk be removed as soon as possible in the asylum process rather than remaining in prolonged detention before removal, senior administration officials said.
Additionally, visas for CEOs and government officials who profit off operations to bring immigrants to the U.S. unlawfully will have their visas revoked.
The actions will also allow law enforcement officers to more quickly remove asylum-seekers with criminal convictions from the country.
The order would shut down the border after daily encounters reach an average of 2,500, and the border would reopen once that number drops below 1,500, senior administration officials said.
The impact of the 2,500 figure means that the executive action could go into immediate effect because daily crossings are currently higher than that.
According to Customs and Border Protection, there were 179,725 encounters by Border Patrol agents along the southern border in April, which averages to 5,991 encounters per day.
So far this fiscal year, CBP has reported more than 1.5 million encounters along the southern border, consistent with last year’s record-setting numbers.
The last time the daily average dipped to 1,500 encounters was in July 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, per the Associated Press.
Biden said the ban would continue until the level of people trying to cross illegally is reduced to a number that can effectively be managed by the immigration system.
Biden was expected to unveil his plan alongside invited mayors of border cities; however, some communities hit hardest by the border crisis feel they've have been left out in the cold.
Several Republican and Democratic mayors weren't invited, including the mayor of El Cajon, California, in the Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector, who shared a statement with NewsNation that Biden handpicked the invited mayors.
"This is nothing but a sham, and an insult to those of us dealing with the real consequences of his failed border policies," Mayor Bill Wells said.
Brownsville, Texas, Mayor John Cowen and Edinburg, Texas, Mayor Ramiro Garza confirmed to the Associated Press that they were invited.
The White House also invited all Democratic senators to the event, but several in competitive races declined the invitation, Axios reported. At least Sens. Jon Tester of Montana; Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin; Jacky Rosen of Nevada; and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania — all of whom are seeking reelection in battleground states — will not attend, per Axios.
Jennie Murray, president and CEO of the nonpartisan immigrant advocacy group National Immigration Forum, told NewsNation her organization doesn't support executive actions and that she believes a cap on asylum-seekers would only be a "Band-Aid" on the problem.
"We don't need to see anything else being compounded down there, and an executive order. While it looks on the surface as if it would be a solution, it will compound the issue, we will have more of the asylum seekers, you know, backed up."
Meanwhile, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told “The Hill Sunday" that the executive action needs to include limiting and banning migrants from crossing the border illegally.
“The devil is always in the details. Like that Senate bill that came through, there were a lot of great ideas. But for every good idea, there was a loophole on the next page that basically meant nothing. So, I would want to make sure that we’re building the wall, that we are limiting and banning these people from coming across the border illegally,” she said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., declined to give the Biden administration credit for acting on the U.S. border as they work to clamp down on illegal immigration. He said the bill is “too little too late now” on “Fox News Sunday.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
