President Biden and the president of Mexico on Monday pledged combined action to prevent illegal immigration as Biden remains under intense political pressure from all sides to address the impact of increased border crossings ahead of this year’s presidential election.
In a joint statement, Biden and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said they had directed their national security aides to “work together to immediately implement concrete measures to significantly reduce irregular border crossings while protecting human rights.”
The statement, which followed a phone call between the two leaders on Sunday, did not specify any action under consideration. A senior administration official declined to elaborate on what the United States and Mexico could “immediately implement.” But the official said possibilities under discussion included stricter enforcement measures to prevent railroads, buses and airports from being used to cross borders illegally and more flights taking migrants back to their home countries.
The issue could be a deciding factor in whether Biden remains in the Oval Office for another four years. Polls conducted by both Republicans and Democrats in recent months indicate that the situation at the border is a serious concern. And even some of the president’s most ardent supporters in liberal cities are demanding that he do something to stem the flow of immigrants.
The president’s latest plan to do so — with a highly restrictive immigration bill that had some bipartisan support — failed in recent months when House Republicans blocked it. Biden had called for the legislation to be passed along with financial aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, but when Congress finally reached a deal on funding earlier this month, the border legislation was not included.
That leaves Biden with few options to address global immigration patterns that have changed dramatically or a U.S. immigration system that both parties admit has been dysfunctional for decades.
Some activists and administration officials believe Biden is on the verge of making a decision to announce executive action that could impose dramatic new limits on asylum seekers, leveraging the same legal authority that President Donald J. Trump saw as best. way to keep immigrants out of the United States. the country when he was in office.
Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s immigration agenda, had long pushed for a broad interpretation of part of the federal code, known as 212(f), to allow the president to prevent immigrants from even setting foot in the border to the United States. State.
People familiar with ongoing discussions at the White House and at the Department of Homeland Security say officials are talking about a presidential proclamation that could cite that section of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which gives the president authority to suspend the immigration of any person who is determined to be “detrimental to the interests of the United States.”
Administration officials have declined to give a timeline on whether Biden could announce an order to close asylum at the border. The president said it in an interview broadcast by Univision on April 9.
“There is no guarantee that I will have that power on my own without legislation,” Biden said. “And some have suggested that I should go ahead and try it. And if the court closes me, the court closes me.”
Border officials have struggled to cope with rising numbers at the southern border, particularly in December, when border agents apprehended nearly 250,000 migrants crossing illegally.
The Biden administration has since worked closely with Mexico to step up enforcement. Those efforts appear to have paid off, for now. In February, border agents made more than 140,000 arrests and in March the number was slightly lower: more than 137,000 arrests.
The type of executive action Biden has talked about worries people who advocate for immigrants. They say the use of a blunt legal tool is likely to deny immigrants reasonable rights to seek refuge in the United States when they flee danger or torture in their home countries.
“We have seen how policies designed to deter and punish people who come to the United States seeking protection fail their stated goal of stopping people from coming,” said Robyn Barnard, senior director of refugee advocacy at Human Rights. First, an Immigrant Advocacy Group. “More of the same tired and illegal policies that former President Trump tried are not smart or real solutions to the problems we face.”
Administration officials point to the fact that the president implemented a series of proposals aimed at increasing legal immigration to the United States from countries that have been hit hard by war, famine, climate change and political instability.
But critics say those programs, while positive, could be overwhelmed by other actions that impose sweeping new restrictions.
“The president should be looking at tools that have actually reduced unauthorized migration, like his own parole pathways, not another token asylum ban,” said Andrea Flores, a former Biden administration official and current vice president of immigration policy at FWD. us, an advocacy group.