President Biden is set Tuesday to unveil an executive order that will allow him to shut down the US-Mexico border when migrant crossings reach a certain number per day, but critics argued Monday that it is too little, too late.
The order would bar illegal border-crossers from claiming asylum when migrant encounters between ports of entry reach a daily mean of 2,500 over the course of a week, according to the Associated Press.
The border would reopen when the number of such encounters decline to 1,500 per day.
Biden, 81, has reportedly been mulling executive action on the border since February, despite denying the insistence of congressional Republicans that he always had that power.
The president is expected to sign the order at a White House ceremony Tuesday with some border city mayors by his side.
Eagle Pass, Texas, Mayor Rolando Salinas, whose town has been overwhelmed by the migrant crisis, told The Post he was not invited to the White House event despite his strong support of “any measure that prevents and limits the amounts of people coming into our city illegally.”
“I just wish this was done back in December, when our city was being hit with 2,000-3,000 people per day,” he said of the executive order. “We won’t forget those days.”
Law enforcement authorities encountered more than 370,000 people attempting to cross the US-Mexico border in December 2023, the highest monthly total on record — and a figure that doesn’t include so-called “gotaways” who managed to escape detection and apprehension.
Border Patrol sources told The Post Monday that they were being kept in the dark about Biden’s planned order and have yet to be briefed on its specifics.
The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) argued that Biden’s order will not do enough to stem the influx.
“Don’t be deceived by Biden’s latest move on the border, which is nothing more than a political stunt,” Banks wrote on X.
“He’s trying to appear tough on immigration because he’s losing ground in the polls,” the GOP lawmaker added. “Remember, he’s already let in over 10 million illegal aliens, and his new executive order will likely lead to at least 1.5 million more illegal crossings in the next year.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) also accused the commander in chief of trying to hoodwink voters ahead of his likely November matchup with former President Donald Trump.
“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,” the House speaker wrote on X.
“The American people know better. He intentionally created this crisis and an executive order won’t change that,” Johnson added.
Under the new restrictions, the border could be closed immediately, as daily migrant encounters currently exceed the 2,500 threshold.
In April, the most recent number for which official statistics are available, US Customs and Border Protection encountered nearly 6,000 migrants per day.
More than 7 million migrants have been apprehended by US Customs and Border Protection agents along the southern border since Biden took office in 2021, CBP data shows, including more than 1.9 million in the current fiscal year, which expires Sept. 30.
