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The Biden administration plans to immediately invoke an authority to shut off access to asylum for migrants who cross the US-Mexico border illegally, senior officials said Tuesday, a significant attempt by President Joe Biden to address head on one of his biggest political vulnerabilities.
Biden is expected to unveil the sweeping executive action later Tuesday, attempting to use executive action to affect the situation on the border after a bipartisan measure failed earlier this year. The action marks the administration’s most dramatic move on the US southern border as Biden tries to gain the upper hand on immigration just weeks from the first presidential debate – by using the same authority former President Donald Trump tried to use in office.
The authority will go into effect later on Tuesday, according to a senior administration official.
The new executive action bars migrants who cross the border illegally from seeking asylum – a departure from decades-long protocol – once a daily threshold is met. Unless they meet certain exemptions, migrants will be turned away to Mexico or returned to their origin country.
Border authorities encountered around 3,500 migrants crossing the border unlawfully on Monday, according to a Homeland Security official, above the threshold needed for the executive action to take effect.
Homeland Security officials have recently been arresting just under 4,000 migrants daily at the US-Mexico border, a brief reprieve from record numbers late last year. The number of people crossing the US southern border has consistently been a challenge for the Biden administration as officials grapple with record migration across the Western Hemisphere.
The measure could be turned on and off. Senior administration officials told reporters Tuesday it would be lifted when there’s a daily average of less than 1,500 encounters in between ports of entry.
Unaccompanied children, victims of a severe form of trafficking, those who present an acute medical emergency or an imminent and extreme threat to life and safety – among select others – are exempt. Migrants can also still request an appointment through the Customs and Border Protection mobile application, known as CBP One, to present their asylum claim at a port of entry.
Critics have blasted the move as akin to steps taken under Trump. As a candidate, Biden blasted the Trump administration as “inhumane” on the border. On a call with reporters Tuesday previewing the new action, one official defended the steps as separate and apart from Trump’s, while acknowledging they’re prepared for legal challenges, “frankly, from both sides of the political spectrum.”
“The Trump administration attacked almost every facet of the immigration system, and did so in a shameful and inhumane way,” one official said Tuesday. “The action will not ban people based on their religion, it will not separate kids from their mothers. There’re also narrow humanitarian exceptions to the bar on asylum, including for those facing an acute medical emergency or an imminent and extreme threat to life or safety – the Trump administration’s actions did not include these exceptions.”
Senior administration officials acknowledged that federal resources are strained, which could pose a challenge, but they maintain that the measure will help them remove people more quickly. Migrants who don’t claim a fear may be removed within days or hours, while those that do will be screened and, if found ineligible, removed.
Homeland Security officials have been preparing for an anticipated rise in border crossings, consistent with previous years when numbers tick up in the summer, including shifting resources to meet a potential surge and getting personnel in place. Senior administration officials Tuesday cited the measure as a tool to help head off that potential increase.
Still, the official acknowledged, Tuesday’s action “cannot achieve the same result as a bipartisan security agreement that the congressional Republicans rejected.”
“These actions do not provide the additional critical personnel and funding or reforms needed to further secure our border. Congress still must act,” the official said.
The action also relies heavily on cooperation from Mexico, who previously agreed to accept up to 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela as part of an effort to cut down on illegal migration in the hemisphere and has significantly ramped up immigration enforcement as part of ongoing efforts.
Officials declined to say Tuesday if any new agreement had been reached with Mexico around Tuesday’s executive action.
