Biden to Issue Executive Order to Close Border. Yeah, Right.

In an interview with Spanish-language channel Univision, President Joe Biden indicated that he will use an executive order to close the southern border. Color me skeptical.

President Biden used an interview with Spanish-language broadcaster Univision that aired Tuesday to send a massive signal that he plans to issue an executive order to dramatically limit the number of asylum-seekers who can cross the southern border.
Axios is told that while it's not final, such an executive order is likely by the end of April.
Why it matters: We're told there's a fierce debate internally about the legality and politics of a Trump-like lockdown. But Biden, briefed on polls of rising voter anger, wants a dramatic step.
Between the lines: The provision Biden is eyeing would restrict the ability of immigrants to claim asylum, and doesn't require congressional approval, Axios reported in February.

It's unlikely that the increasingly befuddled president came up with this on his own. The specifics are, well, Trump-like.

Biden would use authority in Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which gives the president broad leeway to block entry of certain immigrants if it would be "detrimental" to U.S. national interests.
He'd be taking a page from former President Trump, who has repeatedly leaned on that section.

It's correct, of course, that the president, as the chief executive of the executive branch of the federal government, has broad powers to control immigration at the borders.

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This, of course, begs the question: Why now? Why not three years ago, when he took office? Why not two years ago, when illegal immigration was already exploding?

This may be one of the reasons. President Biden is absolutely upside-down in the RealClearPolitics polling averages on a variety of issues, and immigration is one of the big ones. The American people disapprove of his handling of immigration (and, necessarily, the borders) by a two-to-one margin. But that's not the worst news from the world of polling averages; as of this writing, the RealClearPolitics average of a two-way presidential race between Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump has Trump holding a narrow lead, while the average of polls including third-party candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Jill Stein, and Cornel West have Trump holding a larger lead. At the moment, Trump is also holding a lead in most of the battleground states that either candidate will need for an Electoral College win.

This announcement, coming at this point in the election cycle where, conventions notwithstanding, the race has narrowed down to the two major-party candidates, smacks of desperation on the part of the Biden campaign. After months of claiming that the border was secure, Democrats are starting to come around to the ongoing crisis that is our southern border, and the Biden administration seems to be on the trailing edge of a realization that this may well cost Democrats big losses in November.

It remains to be seen whether any actual executive order will be issued. In the Univision interview, Biden appears to indicate that the measure will only accept "asylum seekers," who typically cross the border and present themselves for processing, following which they are bussed or flown to comfortable, tax-payer-funded lodgings in one of America's major cities. There is no mention of increasing border enforcement, or construction of a wall, or any other form of barrier.

This has every hallmark of a cynical, last-minute attempt to deal with an ongoing crisis, one that has the potential to cost Democrats in November. Immigration will almost certainly be one of the key issues on which the 2024 elections will swing, and the Biden administration is showing up late to the game.