President Biden Trump is expected to announce executive actions related to the ongoing crisis at the southern border by Tuesday as the issue threatens to become a major issue in the 2024 presidential race, with Republicans saying it is “too little, too late.”
The Biden administration and border officials confirmed to Fox News that the executive action is expected to be announced by Tuesday before President Biden leaves for Normandy.
Details of what will be announced remain unclear. Some outlets reported it could include a mechanism to prevent additional migrants entering the US, as arrests have averaged more than 4,000 per day over the past seven days.
President Biden speaks to a member of the US Border Patrol as he walks along the US-Mexico border fence in El Paso, Texas, on January 8, 2023. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
The mechanism would likely be similar to one proposed in a sweeping bipartisan Senate bill that was unveiled earlier this year and has the backing of the Biden administration, but has so far failed to garner enough support to pass in the upper chamber. In that bill, a Title-42-style removal authority would allow agents to quickly remove migrants crossing the border.
Biden could try to impose an authorization by executive order using Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows presidents to limit the entry of foreign nationals into the U.S.
Former President Trump 212(f) was invoked several times during his presidency, but he failed to use it to restrict border crossings, an effort that failed because of a legal challenge. Any similar move by President Biden would almost certainly face a similar challenge.
Officials say there are no plans for the president to visit the southern border next week before he departs for Europe.
The Biden administration has repeatedly said its hands are largely tied when it comes to fixing the “broken” immigration system and has repeatedly called on Congress for additional reforms and funding. In a statement to Fox News Digital on Monday, the White House said it “continues to explore a range of policy options and we are committed to taking action to address our broken immigration system.”
A White House spokesperson said, “Congressional Republicans are not concerned about securing the border or fixing America’s broken immigration system. If they were, they would have voted for the most stringent border enforcement in history. Instead, they prioritize partisan politics ahead of our country’s national security.”
President Biden walks along a section of the US-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, on January 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
“While congressional Republicans have chosen to stand in the way of additional border enforcement, President Biden will not stop fighting to provide the resources that border and immigration personnel need to secure our border.”
Republicans have blamed the administration’s policies, including rolling back Trump-era policies such as wall construction, migrant protection protocols and increased interior enforcement. They have passed their own legislation in the House that would substantially limit asylum claims and resume border wall construction and similar measures. It has not yet been taken up by the Senate.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News Sunday that the alleged actions on Biden’s part were “too little, too late.”
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“Now he is trying to somehow show the American people that he wants to solve the issue that he himself created,” he said.
“We’ve documented 64 specific executive actions taken by President Biden and DHS Secretary Mayorkas over the last three and a half years to open the border. Why? They did it on purpose. And it has had a catastrophic impact on our country that we will live with for decades to come,” he said.
Meanwhile, the illegal immigration crisis looks set to become a major election issue. Fox News Poll The crisis at the southern border is the second most important issue to voters, with 69% of respondents saying they disapprove of Biden’s handling of the border issue.
Trump won in 2016 thanks to his plan to fix the southern border, an issue that Biden’s critics say he has failed to properly address.
However, the number of migrant encounters in recent months has declined from the record highs seen in December, where there were more than 200,000 migrant encounters.
There were 179,725 encounters along the southern border in April, while there will be 211,992 in April 2023 and 189,357 in March.
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However, the administration is maintaining a tough stance on this crisis. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas He said some migrants try to cheat the system.
“The reality is that some people really do try to cheat the system,” Mayorkas said. CBS News “This doesn’t apply to every person we meet, but there is some element of it, and we deal with it accordingly,” he said last month.
