President Biden's road to an executive order to stem illegal border crossings, now expected within weeks, has dragged out for months as he prepares for legal challenges, political backlash and enforcement shortages. Biden has been trying to find the right language to impose a crackdown without getting instantly shut down by courts or facing an open revolt from his progressive base. Those challenges, along with concerns that an executive order without the money to implement it wouldn't be effective, have led Biden and his top aides to be extra deliberative before taking action, Axios reports. If he pulls the trigger, Biden would rely on the same section of the federal code, known as 212(f), that former President Trump used against immigration, including his so-called Muslim ban and an ultimately unsuccessful ban on asylum seekers. The stakes are high for what one Biden administration official called the "nuclear option" on the border.
To actually reinforce the border, Biden needs something only Congress can provide: money to hire more U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and other reinforcements. It's already against the law for asylum seekers and other migrants to cross the southwest border anywhere other than the designated, legal entry points. Biden already has used his executive power to automatically reject asylum seekers who cross the border illegally and do not first seek protections in a country they passed through. But harsh executive policies do little to fix the U.S. immigration system's outdated infrastructure, cash-needy federal agencies, and overwhelmed border officials trying to keep up with tens of thousands of people trying to cross into the U.S. every week. So even if Biden does go "nuclear" at the border, it's likely to be a short-term fix.