Biden to sign executive order authorizing US to turn away migrants at Mexico border

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will sign an executive order on Tuesday authorizing the U.S. to turn away migrants who enter the country without legal permission when the number of crossings is high.

A lawmaker who was briefed by a White House official over the weekend described the plans to USA TODAY on the condition of anonymity.

The conditions for closure will be automatically trigged when more than 2,500 migrants enter the country between legal ports of entry.

Biden plans to use section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to carry out the action. Former President Donald Trump relied on the same section of the immigration act when he introduced restrictions during his presidency.

"As we have said before, the Administration continues to explore a series of policy options and we remain committed to taking action to address our broken immigration system," a spokesperson for the White House said in a statement.

Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus asked Biden not to use the same section of the act to carry out his order during a late May meeting at the White House.

News of the Biden administration's latest order comes just 24 hours after Mexico's historic election.

Mexicans voted overwhelmingly for Claudia Sheinbaum, giving her more than 58% of the vote to govern the No. 1 trading partner for the United States. Despite deep cross-border economic ties, the U.S.-Mexico relationship has been tested for years by the countries' shared problems with immigration and drug trafficking.

More: Mexico has a new president, Claudia Sheinbaum. What does it mean for the United States?

Earlier this year, a bipartisan deal collapsed in the Senate that would have allowed for the automatic restriction on asylum-seekers when the number of crossings reached a certain threshold. That bill set the conditions for asylum restrictions at an average of 4,000 migrants per day in a given week, including at ports of entry, with a mandatory shutdown at 5,000 migrants per day on average.

Unauthorized migration at the U.S. border exploded after the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Biden administration has been working to contain crossings ever since with uneven results.

The executive order addresses one aspect of migration: asylum-seekers who, rather than sneaking over the border, cross and turn themselves in to border agents.

"The Biden administration’s reported plan to cap asylum requests is a violation of U.S. refugee law and the Refugee Convention," said Marisa Limón Garza, executive director of the El Paso, Texas-based Las Americas Immigrant Rights Center.

"Our country has a well-established procedure for reviewing and vetting asylum claims," she said. "Refusing to use this process renders women, children, and families fleeing violence more vulnerable to those who would prey upon them.”

David Bier, director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, criticized Biden's proposal as unworkable.

"Since FY 2019, there has been one month outside of FY 2020 where arrests fell below 1,500 per day," Bier said in a post on X. "This is a ludicrous proposal."

U.S. laws are contradictory. Crossing between ports of entry is illegal under Title 8, but under the same U.S. code migrants still retain the right to seek asylum under even if they do.

And despite Biden’s creation of new lawful pathways, asylum-seekers have continued to try their luck between ports of entry.

U.S. Border Patrol encounters and apprehensions peaked above 2.4 million in fiscal year 2023 – an all-time high.

So far, this fiscal year, Border Patrol has reported more than 1.5 million encounters and apprehensions.

Illegal crossings were lower in March and April compared with the same period a year ago, but many observers attribute the trend to Mexico’s efforts to prevent migrants from reaching the U.S. border.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden to sign executive order limiting entry to US by migrants