>> The Biden administration is
preparing an executive action
that will allow president Biden
to temporarily shut down the
U.S. Southern border.
This comes amid pressure from
both sides of the aisle to curb
the flow of border crossings.
Our white house correspondent
has been covering this and me
now.
What do we know about this
expected executive order?
>> It would use a section of
U.S. Immigration law known as
212f authority that gives Biden
the power to suspend entry of
migrants temporarily.
It will be expected to similar
language used in the bipartisan
senate border deal that failed.
For example, if there is an
average of 5000 migrants
encountered each day over the
course of seven days, the
authority would be triggered and
president Biden would be able to
shut down the border until those
encounters fall.
A white house official told me
no final decisions have been
made about an executive action
being considered.
Sources told me the executive
action can come as early as next
week after the Mexican elections
on June 2.
>> When you look at who has been
encountered at the southern
border, who would this executive
action impact?
>> Sources told me it is
expected to apply to most
migrants.
But unaccompanied children often
receive humanitarian exceptions
in an executive action like
this.
The big picture is this is going
to restrict who can seek asylum
ultimately.
When you look at the picture on
the southern border, it is
important to note since December
of 2023, the total number of
encounters by border patrol at
the southern border has
increased from almost 250,000 to
roughly 129,000 in April, and
most are single adults.
Q you have been talking to
immigration lawyers, democratic
sources, how is news of this
order going down?
>> One advocate said the
administration should expect
legal challenges.
I also spoke to Melissa Adamson
who is an immigration lawyer for
the national center for youth
law who said that closing the
border could ultimately end up
being very harmful to children
and families.
>> What we saw in 2020 was
closing the border exposes
children to more exploitation,
kidnapping, physical and sexual
violence while they are stranded
in Mexico and way to cross the
border.
It also leads to increase family
separation.
Because family units are not
allowed to present, they may
have a impossible choice of
sending their children across
the border alone as
unaccompanied minors to seek
safety in the United States.
We know if people can't cross at
ports of entry and they are
forced to seek more dangerous
routes in mountainous areas and
remote desert locations, and
when that happens, we know it
leads to more injuries and
illness and death as people try
and get into the U.S.
>> When I asked the
administration about concerns
like that from Melissa Adamson,
they said the president is
trying to balance humane
pathways of entry for migrants,
as well as enforcing control at
the border and border security.
The white house spokesperson
said they are constantly
exploring policy options for the
president to take.
They specifically took aim at
Republicans for ultimately
killing the bipartisan border
deal.
Another expert I spoke to, who
runs a nonprofit that helps
migrants, helps refugees at the
border so that no matter what,
if this executive action isn't
limited to, migrants will
continue to come.
And when she talks to many
migrants at the border, they are
often not aware of restrictions
that are put in place by
administrations.
This administration or prior
ones.
>> We know real immigration
reform has to come through
congress.
The president tried to do that
through congress, there was a
bipartisan senate bill
Republicans backed away from.
Of us a sense on what kind of
political pressure president
Biden is under in this issue.
>> Multiple hill sources told me
members of hispanic caucus
leadership met with president
Biden and vice president Harris
as well as white house staff
last week at the white house.
They talked about this coming
executive order, they also
pressed the president, saying
they wished he considered other
executive action that could
essentially expand work permits
for migrants already in the
United States.
They also raised concerns about
the president's outreach to
Latino voters.
Some lawmakers ultimately worry
the executive order as well as
linkage in the bipartisan border
bill that a number of Democrats
supported in the senate would
set a standard for future
actions, future asylum actions,
it can be more severe, more
restrictive.
Again, the president is
balancing those concerns with
those of moderate Democrats
facing tough reelections who
want to upper actions taken at
the border.
As well as facing attacks from
Republicans who are falsely
claiming to stir up support
among their base that violent
crime has increased because of
immigration, despite the fact
the data does not show that.
For a sense of how voters rank
it, a Gallup poll from April
2024 found immigration was the
top issue facing the U.S. For
Americans they surveyed,
outranking the economy and
immigration has repeatedly been
a top issue for many voters.
>> That is our white house
correspondent.
Thank you for your reporting.