Biden aims to limit asylum at US-Mexico border

President Joe Biden unveils executive orders on asylum

This is a "dramatic election-year move" and the "most restrictive border policy instituted" by any modern Democrat

(Image credit: Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images)

published 5 June 2024

What happened

President Joe Biden on Tuesday issued an executive order to clamp down on asylum claims from migrants entering the U.S. across the southern border with Mexico.

In order to preserve the U.S. as a "land that welcomes immigrants, we must first secure the border and secure it now," Biden said. It would be much better to "address this issue through bipartisan legislation," he added, but Republican lawmakers "left me with no choice." Biden's new order allows him to temporarily "suspend asylum claims in between ports of entry" when average migrant crossings surpass 2,500 per day over a seven-day period, Politico said. Since that threshold was met this week, the order took effect Wednesday. With certain exemptions, most undocumented migrants are to be repatriated.

It remains to be seen whether the new rules will have any "measurable impact on the border without an accompanying infusion of money from Congress to implement it," The Wall Street Journal said. Biden's proclamation is a "dramatic election-year move" and the "most restrictive border policy instituted" by any modern Democrat, The New York Times said. A similar 2018 effort by former President Donald Trump to cut off migration was "blocked in federal court."

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Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.