Biden to sign executive order on immigration

The White House is preparing to sign off on an executive order that would shut down asylum requests at the U.S.-Mexico border once the average number of daily encounters hits 2,500 between ports of entry.

The border reopens only once that number declines to 1,500, with the impact of the 2,500 figure meaning that the executive order could go into immediate effect. President Biden is expected to unveil the actions at the White House on Tuesday at an event to which border mayors have been invited.

The 1,500 threshold at which the border would reopen for asylum seekers could be hard to reach. Biden has been deliberating on how to act on his own after bipartisan legislation to clamp down on asylum at the border collapsed due to Republicans defecting from the deal at the urging of Donald Trump.

The executive order will allow Biden to declare that he has pushed the boundaries of his own power after lawmakers, specifically congressional Republicans, killed off what would have been the toughest border and asylum restrictions in some time.