Biden eyes options to curb migration
President explores executive actions
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden told the nation’s governors on Friday that he’s exploring what executive actions he can take to curb migration across the southern border after a bipartisan deal collapsed in Congress this month. He indicated frustration at the legal limits of his authority to act unilaterally.
Biden hosted members of the National Governors Association in the East Room, where he implored them to urge their representatives in Congress to resurrect the bipartisan proposal that collapsed within 48 hours. He also sharply criticized Republicans for backing away from the agreement after former President Donald Trump lobbied in opposition to the deal.
“Over time, our laws and our resources haven’t kept up with our immigration system and it’s broken,” Biden told the governors, lamenting that “petty politics intervened” to kill the deal.
Later, during a private question-and-answer session with the governors, he indicated he was looking at what his options are for doing something by executive order.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, the Republican chair of the association, told reporters later that Biden didn’t specify what actions he is considering, but he said the president noted that he was confronting the limits of what he can do without Congress.
“He did say that he has been working with his attorneys, trying to understand what executive action would be upheld in the courts and would be constitutional, and that he seemed a little frustrated that he was not getting answers from attorneys that he felt he could take the kind of actions that he wanted to,” Cox said.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, Democratic vice-chair of the governors’ group, said governors got a “general sense that they’re looking into whatever they can do on the executive side. Again, keeping our expectations realistic, that’s going to be more limited than a congressional solution.”
Polis said Biden cited federal courts overruling some of Trump’s immigration actions, and a desire to avoid a similar fate with any action he took.
“And so there was a frustration that that would occur under under his leadership as well, under any president, absent a change in the law,” Polis said. “A lot of the steps we need to take simply aren’t legal under current law.”
Cox added that Biden mentioned declaring an emergency at the border, which in theory could unlock additional federal funds that would be needed to execute any new border crackdowns.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on private conversations.
Among the actions under consideration by Biden is invoking authorities outlined in Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which gives a president broad leeway to block entry of certain immigrants into the United States if it would be “detrimental” to the national interest.
Trump, the likely GOP candidate to face off against Biden this fall, repeatedly leaned on the 212(f) power while in office, including his contentious ban on travelers from Muslim-majority nations. Biden rescinded that ban on his first day in office through executive order.