Biden signed an EO granting himself the power -- which he previously insisted he did not have -- that the border would be closed if and only if illegal crossings exceeded 2500 per day for a week.
Supposedly, the border will be closed until the illegal crossings drop to 1,500 per day for a week.
Critically, Biden didn't give himself the power to shut down the border. He gave the power to the Open Border Czar himself, DHS Secretary Mayorkas. He did this for two reasons:
1, if Mayorkas closes the border, then Biden will distance himself from that call and not seek to avoid blame from the left.
2, if, as everyone expects, Mayorkas will ignore his power to close the border and never actually close it, then Biden will distance himself from that call and seek to avoid blame from the center and the right.
Even Martha Raddatz was disbelieving that this ploy would result in anything beyond Biden claiming "I closed the border, despite Republicans' demands that I keep it wide open."
President Biden said, 'This ban will remain in place until the number of people trying to enter illegally is reduced to a level that our system can effectively manage,' meaning, as we said, that average of 1,500 encounters or less over a period of 14 days. We said that has never happened. Do you really expect that to happen in the coming months or before Election Day?" Raddatz asked.
"Martha, it is. 1,500, an average of 1,500 individuals encountered over a seven-day consecutive period. We are driving to that and that's not all we're doing. We are also communicating throughout the region about the lawful pathways, we are driving people to use-- " Mayorkas said.
"But that's something you've been doing all along; you've been trying to do that with people," Raddatz jumped in.
Raddatz then played a 2021 interview with Mayorkas, during which the then-newly confirmed DHS secretary claimed the administration had a plan on how to address the large numbers seen at the southern border.
"'We will succeed.' That was three years ago. Since then, 6.5 million migrants have been apprehended along the southern border. It would be very hard to call that a success," Raddatz said.
"Martha, remember something -- that immigration, migration is a dynamic phenomenon. It's not just us who are experiencing it throughout the region and throughout the world. Let's recall what everyone expected when Title 42 was lifted in May of 2023. People expected pandaemonium. Our model worked, we drove the numbers down. They go down, they go up. What we need is congressional action. We cannot resource the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State, the Department of Justice, with additional personnel. We need Congress to legislate," Mayorkas said.
1, there was pandemonium. There remains pandemonium.
2, he claims the numbers went down. Then he immediately says, "They go up, they go down." So did they go down or not? They did not. He's claiming that minor fluctuations downward in a sea of invaders is some kind of victory.
By the way: Of course the current rate of illegals crossing the border far exceeds 2,500 per day.
So will Mayorkas be closing the border this week?
Of course not. It was always a ploy, always a lie.
Mayorkas sets his own bar for "success:" "We are driving to that" level of 1,500 per day.
As long as he can say "we're driving to that level," he'll claim he's right on track to one day, possibly in 2346, finally reduce illegal immigration to 1,500 border crossers per day.
Just like he previously claimed "we are executing on our plan" and succeeding in 2021.
The real plan is this: Biden doesn't want the spectacle of illegal immigrants crossing the border.
So he's opened offices in foreign countries where people can apply for asylum. So when they come to the border, they don't have to illegally cross.
They just show their Free Border Crossing Pass and walk right in.
Apparently he's still working on that plan.