President Joe Biden's impending executive order cracking down on illegal immigration is expected to set limitations on how many migrants can cross the southern border every day.
The long-awaited executive action could be announced as early as Tuesday.
Reports based on interviews with those familiar with plans for the new policies claim that the border will be shut down once crossings reach 4,000 per day over the course of a week.
This would represent the single 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 surging illegal immigration.
Biden has repeatedly said he needs help from Congress to stem the record-breaking flow of illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border. But it seems his tune has changed amid plans to take unilateral action to address the crisis with just five months until the presidential election.
President Joe Biden plans to announce as early as Tuesday an executive order that would limit the number of migrants able to cross the southern border every day if it reaches 4,000 per day
Despite the block at the border on crossings, the U.S. will continue to allow asylum applicants to make 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 migrants every day through that program.
Republicans claim that 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 is to voters heading to the polls in November.
'Don't be deceived by Biden's latest move on the border, which is nothing more than a political stunt,' Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) posted to X. 'He's trying to appear tough on immigration because he's losing ground in the polls.'
He added: 'Remember, he's already let in over 10 million illegal aliens, and his new executive order will likely lead to at least 1.5 million more illegal crossings in the next year.'
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) also wrote on X: 'This is an election-year stunt that won't distract voters from Joe Biden's disastrous, failed immigration policies.'
Biden's order would echo policies former President Donald Trump started 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 – claiming that Biden and his DHS Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, have taken 64 other actions that have further opened the southern border and exacerbated the illegal immigration crisis.
It comes after years of pressure from Republicans demanding action to quell the southern border crisis and only five months ahead of November's election. Pictured: Migrants wait between Mexico and El Paso, Texas to claim asylum in the U.S.
Previously, Biden's White House asked Congress to pass new laws to expand the presidential authority over the border. The Democratic administration claims that Congress needs to act to allow action to address the issue.
A bipartisan border deal failed to take off earlier this year and the Senate voted again in May gainst the border measure, with both Democrats and Republicans teaming up against it.
The plan now is for Biden to enact parts of the Senate deal unilaterally, including denying entrance to migrants after certain thresholds are hit.
The sources said that, specifically, the White House is weighing a policy that would cap the number of migrant encounters at 4,000 per day over a week - 28,000 in total.
What would happen when that threshold is hit is unclear.
A similar policy was at the heart of the failed Senate deal, but Republicans slammed the measure for not doing enough to crack down on illegal immigration.
The White House expects to use authority from Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to go forward with Biden's executive order.
A group of about 100 migrants is removed by the National Guard back to Mexico near El Paso, Texas on May 30. Under Joe Biden, nearly 8 million migrants have come into the U.S. in just three-and-a-half years
Biden is apparently thinking of using section 212(f) to restrict migration, which does not require congressional approval
That law provides presidents leeway in blocking entry of certain immigrants if it would be 'detrimental' to national interests.
Former President Trump repeatedly leaned on that section of the law to shut-out certain immigrants crossing illegally and seeking asylum at the southern border.
Presidents using section 212(f) to restrict migration does not require congressional approval.
But Biden has repeatedly said he wants new laws from Congress to fix the border.
Pushing for the passage of the twice-defeated Senate bill, Biden said in January 'It would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed.'
'And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law,' his January statement continued.
But it appears that the White House has since decided that they can go it alone, as Republicans have charged, and will enact reform this week, though the timing of the reported executive action is opaque.
The administration has reportedly looking to use this power for months - and now sources say that this week an executive order could come down the pipeline.
The White House'continues to explore a series of policy options and we remain committed to taking action to address our broken immigration system,' spokespersonAngelo Fernández Hernández recently.
'While congressional Republicans chose to stand in the way of additional 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 about Biden's election year border policy reversal on Sunday, Republican Speaker Mike Johnson slammed the administration's mulled move, saying it's 'too little too late.'
'He's trying to desperately show the American people that he wants to address the issue that he himself created,' Johnson said.
'We documented 64 specific actions that President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas at DHS took over … the course of three and a half years, beginning on the first day that President Biden [took office], to open the border.'
'They did it intentionally, it's had catastrophic effects upon our country that we'll be living with for decades to come.'
Speaker Mike Johnson claims that 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 lobbying the White House to take an executive action on the border.
And now that they are, he claimed that it's only coming because it's an election year.
'He wants to issue some sort of executive order, I guess to show that, oh he really does care about the issue,' Johnson said. 'The only reason he's doing that is because the polls say that it's the biggest issue in America.'
'And the first question that comes up in almost every public forum, is what about that open border and why in the world would President Biden allow it? He did more than allow it, he engineered it and everybody knows that.'
