While the latest action may appeal to some independent voters, it has already resulted in the American Civil Liberties Union vowing to sue, and has frustrated progressives and advocates who believe the president is caving in to Republican rhetoric.
President Joe Biden talks with Border Patrol agents as they walk along a stretch of the US-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, in 2023.Credit: AP
“This attempt to shut down the border to asylum seekers uses the same section of US immigration laws that convicted felon Donald Trump used to implement the Muslim ban and in attempts to cut off all access to asylum,” said Democrat congresswoman Pramila Jayapal.
“The reality is that the only thing that will ‘fix’ the border is to modernise a desperately outdated immigration system that has reduced legal pathways and resources to process immigrants to intolerable levels.”
Biden’s decision to take a tougher stance comes amid polls suggesting immigration has now overtaken the economy as the top concern for voters, and as Trump makes the issue of “migrant crime” the centrepiece of his campaign to win the White House as a convicted felon.
But Trump and Republicans branded the move as “too little, too late”, saying it smacks of desperation from a president whose polling, as Louisiana Senator John Kennedy put it on Tuesday, is “right up there with fungal infections”.
Donald Trump greets members of Texas Department of Public Safety as he visits Shelby Park on the US-Mexico border.Credit: AP
Trump, who describes the border crisis as an “invasion”, said: “It’s all for show because he knows we have a debate coming up in three weeks.”
But the president hit back at Trump’s rhetoric and past actions, saying: “I will never demonise immigrants. I’ll never refer to immigrants as poisoning the blood of a country. Further, I’ve never separated children from their families at the border.”
The new measures will include humanitarian exceptions for unaccompanied children and victims of trafficking. Migrants who enter lawfully will still be able to seek asylum.
The issue is nonetheless dicey for Biden because about 3.2 million people illegally crossed the border last year – far more than the 1.9 million who entered in Biden’s first year in office.
His decision to rescind Trump era policies, such as halting construction of the border wall and no longer forcing asylum seekers to be sent back to Mexico to await immigration proceedings, merely compounded the problem.
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Democratic cities are also now feeling the brunt due to hundreds of thousands of migrants being bussed into places such as New York, Chicago and Denver, where they are granted a legal right to shelter and services while they await immigration court hearings, which can often take up to six years.
The White House has been considering executive action ever since House and Senate Republicans rejected a bipartisan border security bill in February after Trump made it clear he wanted to use the issue as a political cudgel.
Had the bill passed, it would have added critical border and immigration personnel, invested in technology to catch illegal fentanyl, and reduced the immigration court backlog.
“Frankly, we would prefer to address this issue through bipartisan legislation,” Biden said. “But Republicans have left me with no choice.
“While these steps are important, they’re not enough. To truly secure our border, we need to change our law.”
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