What Biden can do to help solve the border crisis

As pressure mounts for a solution to the situation at the US-Mexico border, Joe Biden is reportedly mulling a variety of avenues that could reduce the number of immigrants who enter the country.

For weeks now, the White House has been locked in a stalemate with Republicans in Congress over a deal that would pair funding for Ukraine with tougher security measures at the southern border.

“A bipartisan bill would be good for America and help fix our broken immigration system and allow speedy access for those who deserve to be here, and Congress needs to get it done,” Biden said last month, according to the Associated Press.

“It’ll also give me, as president, the emergency authority to shut down the border until it could get back under control,” he added. “If that bill were the law today, I’d shut down the border right now and fix it quickly.”

With the presidential election less than a year away, the calls for Mr Biden to take action on immigration are increasingly growing more pronounced — even within his own party.

According to a new Pew Research Center survey, 49 per cent of Democrats say they view the federal government’s handling of the border situation as “somewhat bad,” with another 23 per cent saying they see it as “very bad.”

Seen from an aerial view, immigrants walk along the U.S.-Mexico border wall after crossing the Rio Grande into El Paso, Texas on 1 February 2024 from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

The president’s administration is reportedly weighing a number of policies that could help to decrease the influx of immigrants, the numbers for which hit record highs in December.

According to NBC News, officials involved in these talks are considering making it tougher to qualify for asylum by utilising a stricter approach