HOUSTON – President Joe Biden unveiled his plans to enact significant restrictions on migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
President Biden’s executive order was signed on Tuesday. Under the order, the U.S.-Mexico border will temporarily close to asylum seekers if illegal crossings exceed 2,500 per day.
“It’s essentially a declaration from the administration, stating very, very clearly that no one that comes to the US-Mexico border without having gone through the right process in their home country, for example, going through a consulate, applying for a visa or applying for asylum,” said Tony Payan, Ph.D., Director of the Center for the U.S., and Mexico at Rice University’s Baker Institute.
The border would only reopen once that number falls to 1,500.
“I think that’s a movable line where that can shifted back and forth. It’s vague in that sense, and I think on purpose, it’s probably designed to ensure that in the fall, if things get really, really difficult, they can tighten the number and then say, look, the, the numbers are down to a trickle,” Payan said.
Payan noted the order’s political implications, anticipating pushback from immigrant rights groups and advocacy organizations.
“We also know that former President Trump is going to make it one of his most important points in the campaign,” Payan said. “This is the reason why he instructed practically, the Republicans in Congress not to compromise with the Biden administration and defeat the very bill that they had actually negotiated in the spring. So Biden has no choice but to act alone from the executive office. That reflects really a desire by the administration to show the American people that they’re doing something about immigration.”
The Trump Administration tried to enact similar border restrictions back in 2018 but courts blocked them.
The Biden Administration says the DOJ is prepared to take on any lawsuits regarding the order.