Biden considers temporarily closing southern border to curb flow of migrant crossings

The Biden administration is preparing an executive action that would allow President Biden to temporarily shut down the U.S. southern border. This comes amid pressure from both sides of the aisle to curb the flow of border crossings. Our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez, has been covering this. And she joins me now. So, Laura, what do we know about this expected executive order? Laura Barron-Lopez: This executive action would use a section of U.S. immigration law, Amna, that's known as 212(f) authority that gives President Biden the powers to suspend the entry of migrants temporarily. It's going to be expected to be similar language that was used in the bipartisan Senate border deal that failed. For example, if there is an average of 5,000 migrants encountered each day over the course of seven days, then this authority would be triggered, and President Biden would be able to shut down the border until those encounters fall. Now, the White House and a White House official told me that no final decisions have been made about an executive action that is potentially being considered. But sources told me that this specific executive action could come as early as next week after the Mexican elections on June 2. Amna Nawaz: So, when you look at who has been encountered at the U.S. southern border recently, who would this kind of executive action impact? Laura Barron-Lopez: Sources told me that this executive action is expected to apply to most migrants, but unaccompanied children often receive humanitarian exemptions in an executive action like this. The big picture, Amna, is that this is going to restrict who can seek asylum ultimately. And when you look at the picture on the southern border right now, it's important to note that, since December of 2023, the total number of encounters by Border Patrol at the southern border has decreased from almost 250,000 to roughly 129,000 in April this year, according to Customs and Border Protection. And most of those are single adults. Amna Nawaz: So, I know you have been talking to immigration lawyers, to your Democratic sources. How is news of this expected order going down among them? Laura Barron-Lopez: One immigration advocate I spoke to said that the administration should expect legal challenges to this. I also spoke to Melissa Adamson, who is an immigration lawyer for the National Center for Youth Law, who said that closing the border could ultimately end up being very harmful to children and to families. Melissa Adamson, National Center for Youth Law: So what we saw in 2020 was that closing the border exposes children to more exploitation, to kidnapping, to physical and sexual violence while they're stranded in Mexico and they wait to cross the border. And it also leads to increased family separation, because if family units aren't allowed to lawfully present, they may make the impossible choice of trying to send their children across the border alone as unaccompanied minors to try to seek safety in the United States. We know that, if people can't cross at ports of entry, then they're forced to seek more and more dangerous routes in mountainous areas, in remote desert locations. And when that happens, we know that it leads to more injuries and illness and death as people try to get into the United States. Laura Barron-Lopez: When I asked the administration about concerns like that from Melissa Adamson, they said that the president is trying to balance both humane pathways of entry for migrants, as well as enforcing control at the border and enforcing border security. And the White House spokesperson said that they're constantly exploring policy options for the president to take, but they specifically took aim at Republicans for ultimately killing the bipartisan border deal. Another expert I spoke to, Erika Pinheiro, who runs Al Otro Lado, which is a nonprofit that helps migrants, helps refugees at the border, said that, no matter what, if this executive action is implemented, migrants will continue to come, and that, when she talks to many migrants at the border, they often are not aware of restrictions that are put in place by administrations, be it this administration's or prior ones. Amna Nawaz: So we know that real immigration reform, meaningful immigration reform, has to come through Congress. As you mentioned, the president tried to do that through Congress. There was that bipartisan Senate bill that Republicans backed away from. Give us a sense of what kind of political pressure President Biden is under right now on this specific issue. Laura Barron-Lopez: Multiple Hill sources told me that members of Hispanic Caucus leadership met with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as White House staff, last week at the White House. They talked about this coming executive order. They also pressed the president, saying that they wished that he would consider other executive actions that could essentially expand work permits for migrants that are already in the United States. They also raised concerns about the president's outreach to Latino voters. And some Hispanic lawmakers told me that they ultimately worry that this executive order, as well as language in the bipartisan border bill that a number of Democrats supported in the Senate, would set a standard for future actions, future asylum actions that could be more severe, more restrictive. Now, again, the president is balancing those concerns with those of moderate Democrats that are facing potentially tough reelections who want tougher actions taken at the border, as well as facing attacks from Republicans who are falsely claiming, Amna, to stir up support among their base, that violent crime has increased because of immigration, despite the fact that the data doesn't show that. And for a sense of how voters rank it, a Gallup poll from April 2024 found that immigration was the top issue facing the U.S. for Americans they surveyed, outranking the economy. And immigration, Amna, has repeatedly been a top issue for many voters this year so far. Amna Nawaz: All right. That is our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez. Laura, thank you for your reporting. Laura Barron-Lopez: Thank you. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.