Biden to crack down on migrant crossings with order allowing him to halt new asylum claims

President Joe Biden will unveil an executive order aimed at curbing illegal border crossings that will allow him to shut down the US asylum process when crossings pass a certain daily threshold.

The White House is set to roll out Biden’s border action at an event on Tuesday that is expected to feature elected officials from border states and cities who’ve been bearing the brunt of migration along the US-Mexico border.

The plan is understood to include language that would give Biden the ability to order a halt to the processing of new asylum claims if more than 2,500 illegal crossings occur in one day. The pause in asylum claims would automatically be rescinded when illegal crossings dropped to 1,500 per day or lower.

Biden’s order is centered around a provision that was central to a compromise framework hammered out by Republican and Democratic negotiators in the Senate earlier this year. That legislative push died after former President Donald Trump pushed Republicans to oppose efforts to address illegal immigration during the presidential election.

Members of the former president’s party have openly fretted that the GOP’s presumed nominee is handing Democrats a political victory with the move.

“I’m extremely disappointed in the very strange maneuvering by many on the right to torpedo a potential border reform bill. That’s what we all ran on doing,” border-state Republican Dan Crenshaw said in February. “If we have a bill that, on net, significantly decreases illegal immigration, and we sabotage that, that is inconsistent with what we told our voters we would do.”

“It would be a pretty unacceptable dereliction of your duty.”

James Lankford, a Republican directly involved in negotiating the Senate immigration compromise