The White House is informing lawmakers that President Joe Biden is getting ready to approve an executive order. This order would stop people from asking for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border once the average number of daily encounters reaches 2,500 between official entry points. The border would only open again for asylum seekers once this number goes down to 1,500. Several people who know about the talks shared this information.
The impact of the 2,500 number means the executive order could start right away because current daily numbers are higher than that.
The Democratic president is expected to announce these actions at the White House on Tuesday. This move is seen as his most forceful independent action yet to manage the numbers at the border. Border mayors have been invited to the event.
Five people familiar with the discussions confirmed the 2,500 number on Monday. Two of them confirmed the 1,500 number. These figures represent daily averages over a week. Everyone involved asked to stay anonymous because the executive order isn’t public yet.
Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden (Via Satya Solomon/Shutterstock)
While other border activities like trade are expected to continue, reaching the 1,500 threshold to reopen the border for asylum seekers could be difficult. The last time the daily average dropped to 1,500 encounters was in July 2020, during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Senior White House officials, such as chief of staff Jeff Zients and legislative affairs director Shuwanza Goff, have been informing lawmakers on Capitol Hill about the details of the planned order before the official announcement on Tuesday.
However, there are still questions about how the executive order would operate, especially concerning how much cooperation the U.S. would need from Mexican officials to carry it out.
