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President Biden’s recently unveiled border security policy will likely do little to fix the surge in crossing attempts at the southern border, according to an immigration policy think tank.
“At present, the government is offering neither investment nor solutions,” reads an American Immigration Council analysis of the Biden policy. “It is essentially crossing its fingers that the asylum system will fix itself.”
The analysis comes after the president signed an executive order last week aimed at tightening border security, a move he argued was made necessary by “Republican obstruction” of his bipartisan border bill that failed in the Senate earlier this year.
“The border is not a political issue to be weaponized,” Biden said when announcing the order.
President Biden announced an executive order to shut down the border when encounters average 2,500 for seven days. (Getty Images)
Biden’s order will cause a temporary suspension of entry for non-citizens once the number of average border encounters is over 2,500 per day over a seven-day period, staying in effect for 14 days after the seven-day average has reached fewer than 1,500 encounters.
According to the American Immigration Council, historical trends indicate that it is unlikely Biden’s order will be lifted anytime soon.
“Recent history indicates that it is highly unlikely that the current emergency will be lifted in the near future, barring an unprecedented and sudden break in border trends. In five of the last six fiscal years, monthly average border crossings have exceeded 1,500 in every month but one,” the analysis reads.
The report noted that it is possible there will be a temporary dip in border apprehensions, which has historically happened as migrants and human traffickers take a “wait and see” approach to U.S. policy, changes at the border, especially during the summer period when border apprehensions generally slow historically.
BIDEN ORDER TO BLOCK MOST ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WHEN CROSSINGS SURGE, AS ELECTION NEARS
“But success on the Biden administration’s own terms – reducing border crossing levels for the next six months or longer – would require far more than that. It would require the United States to do what it has tried, and failed, to do for a decade: stop people from fleeing their homes, in the midst of a global displacement crisis, by making life harder for some of those who have already arrived in the United States,” the analysis reads.
President Biden speaks with a member of the Border Patrol as they walk along the U.S.-Mexico border fence in El Paso, Texas, on Jan. 8, 2023. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
Instead, the report calls on the U.S. to strengthen its asylum system and provide “new pathways for people to come without feeling forced to cross the border,” though the report acknowledges such an approach would require “an infusion of resources from Congress to support the humanitarian protection system, including hiring more asylum officers, port of entry staff, immigration judges, and support staff throughout the system.”
“Committing to a deterrence strategy would also require meaningful investment, but for highly uncertain benefit; committing to a solutions strategy would ensure today’s investments will make the system work better tomorrow,” the report reads.
‘IT IS INSULTING’: BIDEN BORDER ORDER TAKES HEAT FROM DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS
The report also comes as Biden’s order has come under fire from Republicans, with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott accusing the administration of “gaslighting” Americans into believing the president has taken meaningful action.
“As long as the Biden administration refuses to provide any type of enforcement, any type of blockage of people crossing illegally, all that this new Biden policy is doing to do is to actually attract and invite even more people to cross the border illegally,” Abbott told Fox News last week. “There’s no slowing down of people crossing the border. In fact, it’s just accelerating.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott during a panel discussion at the Yale Club in Manhattan on Sept. 27, 2023. (Luiz C. Ribeiro/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Abbott’s critique of the policy seemingly played out the day after the executive order was signed, with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources telling Fox News that the Border Patrol apprehended roughly 4,000 illegal migrants between ports of entry the day after Biden’s announcement. That number was at least as high as what averages had been in prior weeks leading up to the order, which usually hovered in the mid to high 3,000s.
Reached for comment by Fox News Digital, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates argued that the analysis helped “President Biden’s point.”
“Congressional Republicans must stop putting politics above the safety of their constituents and stop blocking the hiring of thousands of CBP and ICE personnel, the deployment of advanced fentanyl detection machines, and asylum system reforms, all of which Joe Biden is fighting for as part of the toughest, fairest bipartisan border deal in modern history,” Bates said. “He has taken decisive action throughout his term as Republican officials continually sided with fentanyl traffickers and human smugglers over law enforcement and solutions.”
