Biden tells governors he’s exploring border actions
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden told the nation’s governors on Friday that he’s exploring what executive actions he can take to address migration across the southern border after a bipartisan deal collapsed in Congress this month. He seemed to express frustration at the 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 col- lapsed within 48 hours. He also sharply criticized Republicans for backing away from the agreement after former President Donald Trump lob- bied in opposition to the deal.
Later, during a private question and answer ses- sion with the governors, he indicated he was looking at what his options are for doing something by executive order.
“Over time, our laws and our resources haven’t kept up with our immigration sys- tem and it’s broken,” Biden told the governors, lamenting that “petty politics inter- vened” to kill the deal.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, the Republican chair of the association, told reporters later that Biden didn’t spec- ify what actions he is consid- ering, but he said the presi- dent noted that he was confronting the limits of what he can do without Congress.
“He did say that he has been working with his attor- neys, 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 get- ting 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 gover- nors got a “general sense that they’re looking into whatever they can do on the execu- tive side. Again, keeping our expectations realistic, that’s going to be more limited than a congressional solution.”
Polis said Biden cited fed- eral courts overruling some of former President Donald Trump’s immigration actions, and a desire to avoid a similar fate with any action he took.
“And so there was a frus- tration that that would occur under his leadership as well, under any presi- dent, 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: “He men- tioned the ability to declare an emergency at the bor- der, what would that look like, could he do something like that. It was just kind of a general refrain when pushing back on ‘you need to do more’ and him say- ing ‘my attorneys tell me I can’t do more.’”
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 controversial ban on travelers from Muslim-majority nations. Biden rescinded that ban on his first day in office through executive order.
How Biden would deploy that power to deal with his own immigration problems is being considered, and it could be used in a variety of ways, according to three people familiar with the discussions. For example, the ban could kick in when border crossings hit a certain number. That echoes a provision in the Senate border deal, which would have activated expulsions of migrants if the number of illegal border crossings reached above 5,000 daily for a five-day average.