The administration of US President Joe Biden is preparing to introduce a daily limit on the number of illegal crossings at the Mexican border, the Washington Post and several other media outlets have reported, citing anonymous officials. Once triggered, the cap would result in the border being shut to asylum seekers, who would then be automatically turned away or returned to their home countries.
According to government data cited by the WaPo, an average of 3,500 illegal crossings each day have taken place on the southern border in recent weeks. Official estimates suggest approximately 2 million illegal crossings a year since 2021.
Republicans have been highly critical of Biden’s handling of the situation, accusing him of dereliction of duty. With the topic dominating the ongoing presidential campaign ahead of the November election, GOP frontrunner and former president Donald Trump has vowed to enact a sweeping crackdown on illegal migration if he is returned to the White House.
According to the media, the executive order that Biden plans to sign on Tuesday would introduce a daily threshold of 2,500 asylum applications. After that all asylum seekers and illegal immigrants will be rejected.
Biden's administration has been considering the measure since Republican lawmakers shot down bipartisan border legislation earlier this year. At that time, Trump and other members of the GOP dismissed the bill as not being tough enough.
While there are already some measures in place aimed at curbing the flow of illegal migrants, many of them are unworkable as border authorities are overstretched, the WaPo pointed out. Migrants’ countries of origin also may not agree to take back their citizens.
Mexico, too, caps the number of non-Mexican migrants that it will accept from the US at 30,000 per month.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott invoked the state’s “constitutional right of self defense… stemming from Joe Biden’s refusal to enforce immigration laws” in January. He argued that White House inaction had “caused an unprecedented invasion that we must defend against.”
In a comment to the WaPo, White House spokesperson Angelo Fernandez Hernandez claimed it was the Republicans who “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 said.
Meanwhile, the president’s attempts to get tough on immigration have come under fire from the left within his own Democratic Party.