The Biden administration is considering taking executive action to crack down on illegal migration across the southern border, according to two US officials.
With border security legislation looking unlikely to pass in Congress, the plans being reviewed indicate the White House wants to take action before numbers at the border, which have been declining for the past month, rise again as expected.
The plans have been under review for months, officials said. In December, illegal crossings across the southwest border hit a record high of more than 10,000 a day, as Congress prepared to leave town for recess with no border resolution in sight.
Officials said the unilateral measures being considered could upset some progressives in Congress, but noted that Democratic mayors who want more help from the federal government to cope with the influx of migrants to their cities would be pleased. Events are still in development and are not expected to happen anytime soon.
Senate Republicans blocked it on Wednesday bilateral border bill He said they had been in talks with Democrats and the Biden administration in previous months.
In a statement, a White House spokesman said, “The Administration spent months negotiating in good faith to introduce the toughest and fairest bipartisan border security bill in decades, because Congress needs to make significant policy reforms and provide additional funding to protect our border.”
“Today, Congressional Republicans chose to put partisan politics over our national security and voted against what border agents told them they needed. No regulatory measure can accomplish what a bilateral national security agreement will do for border security and the immigration system in general.
No matter how visible any executive action to increase immigration enforcement, both at the border and in the U.S. interior, officials said it would pale in comparison to the implications if Congress were to pass a border security bill.
“This is plan B,” said one official. Both officials said doing nothing was not an option.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday argued that the bipartisan bill would make “important fixes to our broken immigration system,” calling it the “toughest, fairest law” ever proposed on the border.
Biden is facing a growing political backlash, in part from members of his own party, for managing the border while campaigning for re-election. He plans to point to the Republican turnaround on bipartisan border legislation as evidence of political reasons. The GOP does nhet really want to solve the problem. But he’s still sensitive about it, The odds in 2024 outpace its rivalFormer President Donald Trump has a more than 30-point lead on border security and immigration control, according to a new NBC News poll released this week.
The Biden administration has already implemented numerous unilateral measures to stem the flow of migrants.
When Covid restrictions at the border were lifted in May, the Department of Homeland Security imposed restrictions that would make more migrants eligible for expedited deportation. But the large numbers meant that the vast majority of migrants caught by border agents were still allowed into the United States.