President Joe Biden is expected to reveal a new plan Tuesday restricting migrants from crossing the southern border, until the rate of asylum seekers drops to 1,500 people per day.
What Restrictions Does the Executive Order Contain?
The restrictions are expected to kick in if the average number of daily encounters at the border reaches 2,500, sources familiar with the planned executive order told the Associated Press. The figures will be determined based on a weekly average of encounters.
The 1,500 threshold that would reopen the border will likely be a challenging one to reach. The last time border crossings dropped so low was at the height of COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden is expected to announce the executive order during a gathering of border city mayors that will be held at the White House.
Why Are Some Advocates Against the Plan?
Biden's border plan would be the most restrictive immigration policy passed by any modern Democrat - approaching levels of restriction comparable to that of former President Donald Trump.
Some immigration advocates are already planning to challenge Biden's order. The American Civil Liberties Union told the Associated Press they were waiting to see the official text of the executive order before "making final litigation decisions."
"But a policy that effectively shuts down asylum would raise clear legal problems, just as (it) did when the Trump administration tried to end asylum."
Democratic Representative Henry Cueller expressed that a plan should've been implemented long before now, while adding that this would require the cooperation of Mexico's government.
"If you think about the logistics, where else can they go?" Cuellar said, according to the Associated Press. "If they're not going to let them in, where do they go? Do they return them or do they try to deport as many as they can? We did add a lot more money into ICE so they can deport, but the easiest thing, of course, is just send them back to Mexico. You've got to have the help of Mexico to make this work."
The president is also receiving negative feedback from the right - with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson criticizing the plan on social media.
"President Biden has engineered a wide-open southern border and is now trying to convince Americans that he wants to address the chaos he created," he wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
"The American people know better. He intentionally created this crisis and an executive order won't change that."
President Biden has engineered a wide-open southern border and is now trying to convince Americans that he wants to address the chaos he created.
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) June 3, 2024
The American people know better. He intentionally created this crisis and an executive order won’t change that. pic.twitter.com/4CsnkmG0Cl
