President Joe Biden anticipated that he's planning to issue an executive order to stem the flow of migrants entering the U.S. through the southern border. And Axios reported that such a decision could be announced this month.
Speaking to Spanish-language broadcaster Univision, Biden said his administration is "examining whether or not" he has the "power" to bypass Congress and implement the measures.
"When the border has over 5,000 people a day trying to cross the border because you can't manage it, slow it up. There's no guarantee that I have that power all by myself without legislation. And some have suggested I should just go ahead and try it. And if i get shut down by the court, I get shut down by the court. But they're trying to work through that right now," Biden told journalist Enrique Acevedo.
Axios added that the provision Biden is looking into would make it harder for immigrants to request asylum in the country, something that doesn't require congressional approval. Other measures currently being considered are: a sweeping presidential authority that allows him to "suspend the entry" of foreigners when it is determined that their arrival is not in the best interest of the country; and the ability to turn asylum seekers away if they cross illegally.
Biden's harder stance comes as polls have shown for months that the surge in immigration is among voters' main concerns as elections get closer by the day, even topping the list in many cases. And most of them disapprove of the way the president is handling the issue, including almost three quarter of Latinos, according to a recent AP-NORC survey.
Overall, two thirds of Americans said they disapprove of Biden's approach, also including 40% of Democrats. The survey also showed that over half of respondents ranked immigration as an "extremely or very important issue to them personally, including 75% of Republicans, 52% of independents and 46% of Democrats."
Another poll showed that a majority of Latinos measures aimed at helping migrants who reach the country stay in it. However, on the other hand, there's an increasing amount who are backing a crackdown, according to a new Axios-Ipsos poll focused on the demographic.
Figures show that almost two thirds of Latinos (65%) said they favor providing a path to U.S. citizenship for all people currently living in the country illegally, while 59% backed allowing the possibility of claiming asylum to refugees fleeing crime and violence in Latin America.
But while these levels are roughly unchanged since December 2021, the amount of respondents who supported harsher measures did increase significantly. 42% said they'd back building a wall or fence across the entire U.S.-Mexico border and 38% that they favor sending all undocumented immigrants in the U.S. back to their country of origin.
These answers are consistent with figures showing an increased concern with immigration from the entire electorate, Latinos included. 64% of respondents said they support giving the president authority to shut down the border if there are too many migrants trying to enter the country, while 62% said that improving border security is important for the government to prioritize. 70% said the same thing for reforming the immigration system.
Biden has already started working on the issue on the other side of the border. Following a series of high-level meetings with the Lopez Obrador administration last year, Mexican authorities seemingly started cracking down on migrants in the country.
A recent report by AP highlighted that Venezuelan migrants attempting to reach the U.S. are increasingly getting stuck in Mexico unable to continue their journey and with no perspective to do so in the near future.
Venezuelans accounted for a significant part of the drop in migrants recorded: there were 3,184 arrests in February and 4,422 in January, compared to almost 50,000 in December.
That showed in March, as the amount of migrants apprehended at the southern border surprisingly fell. Concretely, Border Patrol agents encountered over 137,000 people crossing the border unlawfully during the period. Even though it's a dip compared to February's 141,000, the figure becomes more significant as seasonal trends pointed at a surge during the period.
Officials still see an increase in encounters as spring starts, but the lower figure could give some air to the Biden administration, which has faced criticism from different sides of the political spectrum for what they perceive as a lack of enforcement to reduce the amount of crossings.
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