President Joe Biden is planning to announce executive action allowing him to close the U.S.-Mexico border when the number of immigrants coming into the United States climbs to 4,000 per day, according to a new report.
It's not clear when Biden would issue the order, the New York Post reported Wednesday, citing an unnamed federal government source.
But another source close to the White House said the order would tie into a provision in the bipartisan bill the Senate rejected in February that would have given Biden the authority to start expelling migrants when border crossings reached a daily average of 4,000.
The proposed bill would have made it mandatory to order deportations if people entering the county illegally climbed past 5,000 a day for a one-week period.
The White House has declined to comment on a potential executive order from Biden.
In April, Customs and Border Patrol stopped an average of almost 6,000 migrants daily, according to federal reports.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has been calling on Biden to enforce action on the border.
A spokeswoman for him told the Post that the order would prove Biden "doesn't need Congress to pass legislation to take action on the border," despite claims the president made in January that the border bill needed to be passed before he could take action on illegal immigration.
Last month, Biden told Univision that the White House is "examining" whether he has the power to enact an order raising a "critical fear" standard for people seeking asylum.
He also considered executive action in February to stop migrants who cross the border between ports of entry from being granted asylum while removing other migrants if crossings met a certain threshold, which was not specified, according to Politico.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, may be considering bringing back the border legislation bill, according to a source close to the issue.
The New York Democrat on Wednesday said on the Senate floor that the only way to solve the border issue "is with real, bipartisan action, not bipartisan talk."
However, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., one of the original negotiators for the failed bipartisan bill, told Newsmax on Wednesday that statements by Democrats that they are attempting to revive the negotiations are not serious.
"No one has talked to me about trying to solve this issue [currently], because this is not a serious attempt to try and solve anything," Lankford said.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., who voted against the initial bill, called restoring the issue a "cheap election year ploy" because the president "has lost all credibility on the border."
"Democrats have completely failed on the issue for the past three and a half years and will have to own that failure in front of American voters," he told the Post, calling on Schumer to convince Biden to restore former President Donald Trump's border policies.
Johnson, likewise, said that Schumer and Democrats in the Senate already have legislation that was passed in the House, but they're "letting it collect dust in the Senate."
"The End the Border Catastrophe Act, which includes core components of H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act of 2023, would institute Remain in Mexico, reform the parole and asylum laws, and build the border wall," he said in a statement.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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