Joe Biden is set to close the border with Mexico under a new executive order that will clamp down on asylum seekers.
Signed on Tuesday, the order allows the United States to suspend the entry of noncitizens who cross from Mexico once the average number of daily encounters reaches 2,500 between official ports of entry.
A senior administration official said that under the order, the border would be closed immediately because the threshold has already been met.
They added that the border, which the White House says is “overwhelmed,” will only reopen once the number of migrant encounters at the U.S. border drops to 1,500 per day.
Once the order takes effect, immigrants who do not express fear of returning to their home countries will be subject to immediate removal from the United States. They could also face a five-year ban on re-entering the country and possibly be criminally prosecuted.
Speaking at the White House after signing the order, Biden He said Republicans “have left me no choice” but to “do what I can on my own to address the border.”
Photo: AP
In a statement, the White House added that the order has “humanitarian exceptions,” including for unaccompanied children and victims of trafficking.
But the Biden administration expects legal challenges to the order, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has already said it intends to do so.
ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said: “The asylum ban is illegal just as it was when [Donald] Triumph I tried without success.”
Lindsay Toczylowski, executive director of the California-based Immigrant Defenders Law Center, also told Sky partner NBC: “It’s a betrayal of what we were told in [Biden’s] campaign four years ago.
“We were told that President Biden would restore humanity to our border…But what we are seeing is history repeating itself.”
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The previous president attempted to enact similar restrictions in 2018, only to be blocked by the courts. During the 2020 presidential election, Biden called Trump’s immigration policies “criminal.”
And speaking Tuesday, the president further distanced himself from Trump, saying: “I will never demonize immigrants. I will never refer to immigrants as poisoning the blood of a country.
“And furthermore, I will never separate children from their families at the border. I will not expel people from this country because of their religious beliefs.”
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In January, Biden said he had “done everything I could” to control the border. He also regularly accused Republicans of refusing to pass laws to tighten restrictions, and in February demanded they show “coverage.”
Read more: Trump and Biden promise tough immigration measures in rival visits to Texas
In a post on Truth Social after Biden signed the order, Trump said the Democrat has “totally surrendered our southern border” and that the order was “all for show” ahead of their June 27 presidential debate.
At a news conference, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson also said: “It’s window dressing. Everybody knows that… If I was worried about the border, I would have done it a long time ago.”
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