President Biden is expected to sign an executive order on Tuesday that would give the White House additional authority to limit the flow of migrants across the southern border, sources confirmed to The Hill.
The order would allow border authorities to turn away migrants at the southern border once crossings exceed a certain number, an official said.
The Associated Press reported the order would close the border after 2,500 daily encounters, and the border would reopen once the number of encounters fell below 1,500.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The order will likely face legal challenges once it is implemented, along with backlash from progressive Democrats who have protested the Trump administration’s restrictive border policies.
Tuesday’s signing would also come days after Mexico elected Claudia Sheinbaum as its next president.
The order would be an aggressive step by Biden to address a looming election-year issue, at a time when White House efforts to broker bipartisan border legislation have encountered opposition from Republicans in Congress. The White House spent months evaluating the legality and feasibility of taking executive action.
Biden and White House officials have previously said it was up to Congress to approve border changes, and up to the president and his team. lobbied hard for a bipartisan bill in the Senate that would have provided funding for thousands of additional Border Patrol agents, investments in technology to capture fentanyl and target drug traffickers, and the addition of asylum and immigration agents who could help alleviate the backlog of asylum cases.
But the Senate twice blocked passage of that bill, with former President Trump and other Republicans staunchly opposing it. Trump urged Republicans to oppose the bill, suggesting it could give Biden an election year victory.
Republicans, including Trump, have made immigration a major issue ahead of the November elections, seeking to blame Biden for the surge of migrants entering the US at the southern border.
An Associated Press poll published in April found that 16 percent of Americans said Biden’s presidency had helped “a lot” or “somewhat” on immigration and border security, compared to 46 percent who said Trump’s presidency had helped a lot or a little on the issue.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
