After three years of border chaos, President Biden said Tuesday he’s ready to get tough on illegal immigrants, announcing plans to break the cycle of catch-and-release with a broad shutdown, effective immediately.

The bold move taps the same kinds of tools that President Trump used to fix the border — tools Mr. Biden tossed during his early months in office but now finds expedient.

Mr. Biden is issuing a proclamation suspending the entry of migrants who cross the southern border “unlawfully,” and Homeland Security and the Justice Department are issuing new rules limiting those migrants’ ability to claim asylum.

The result will be faster deportations and, Mr. Biden hopes, fewer people attempting to come in the first place.

“The goal here is to secure our border while preserving legal immigration consistent with our values as a nation,” an administration official told reporters in previewing the announcement Tuesday.

Others saw the goal as political.

“This is election-year politics,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican. “Create a crisis and then a couple of months before the election, do something very mild and say ’See, problem solved.’”

Experts estimate that 5 million new illegal immigrants have jumped the border and managed to settle in the U.S. since Mr. Biden took office. A majority of those were caught and knowingly released, while others snuck in without being apprehended.

The White House said the border shutdown kicks in when Homeland Security averages more than 2,500 daily encounters with illegal immigrants. It remains in effect until illegal encounters drop below 1,500 for at least a week.

Mr. Biden’s new policy flexes powers under sections 212(f) and 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Those are broad powers allowing the president to suspend entry of classes of migrants when he deems it in the national interest.

Mr. Trump used those powers for his travel ban.

And just like the travel ban and other Trump immigration policies, Mr. Biden’s policy will face quick legal challenges from immigrant rights advocates.

“We are prepared for any litigation on this rule,” an official told reporters.

But Andrew “Art” Arthur, a former immigration judge, said the president is playing legal games. He said the advocates are likely to sue in courts that have ruled in the past against similar Trump-style policies and which are likely to issue an injunction against Mr. Biden.

He said the test will be how vigorously Mr. Biden defends his policies and whether he caves to the legal challenges after the election.

“This is ’Remain in Mexico,’ only it’s more susceptible to judicial attack. This is really just eye wash. This is papering over all the problems at the border and funneling migrants into the United States through the port of entry,” said Mr. Arthur, now a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies.

Administration officials said that while they may be tapping similar authorities, they are taking pains to be more welcoming of some migrants.

The new speedy deportation policy does not apply to Unaccompanied Alien Children, or kids who show up at the border without a parent. And migrants will still be screened for what’s known as withholding of removal and the Convention Against Torture, which means even if they don’t qualify for asylum, some may still be able to block their deportation.

Administration officials said they will try to carry out the deportations with current funding, but said the money Congress has allocated in recent years has been “inadequate.”

Much of that is Mr. Biden’s doing. He submitted repeated budgets that called for cuts to migrant detention, and Congress rebuffed those calls. Late last year, Mr. Biden reversed course and embraced higher detention and deportation spending as part of the failed Senate negotiations.

Officials admitted they will still struggle to handle the massive new wave of migrants coming from far afield. Migrants from China have seen major increases, for example, and China is listed as a noncooperative country when it comes to accepting back deportees.

But officials said they hope to change the way migrants think about their journey.

“When we have the ability to remove individuals quickly, it can significantly impact migrant flows by changing the calculus for intending migrants,” a senior administration official said.

The theory is that when migrants are being caught and released, the money they’re paying to be smuggled in is worth it. But if they’re getting quickly deported, the money isn’t worth it.

Mexicans typically pay between $9,000 and $10,000 to reach the U.S., according to The Washington Times’ database of border smuggling cases. Central Americans typically pay $12,000, and those from South America can pay more than $20,000. Those from outside the hemisphere can pay as much as $60,000.

The administration said part of its new plan involves stepping up efforts to block those extra-continental migrants from reaching North America in the first place.

It said it would block visas for executives of Colombian companies that smuggled migrants by sea and would slap visa limits on more than 250 members of Nicaragua’s government, which makes money off migrants by selling transit visas for those using the country as a waypoint en route to the U.S.

Mr. Biden’s timing is curious.

The border hit its worst point in December, and has improved significantly since then as Mexico has stepped up its efforts to prevent illegal immigrants from reaching the border. Indeed, the past few months have been the best of Mr. Biden’s tenure.

Prodded on the timing, U.S. officials who briefed reporters on Tuesday said Mr. Biden is acting now both because of the potential for higher migration over the summer months, and also because of the politics of the moment.

One official pointed to the Senate’s recent failure — for a second time — to pass a broad border bill.

Left unsaid was Mr. Biden’s precarious polling on the issue. Immigration and the border regularly rank high on voters’ list of interests, and they consistently give Mr. Biden his lowest marks for his handling of the issue.

Republicans called the steps too little and too late.

“Why didn’t Biden do this 10 million migrants ago?” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, Louisiana Republican.

The Trump campaign, in a statement, said Mr. Biden’s plan is an “amnesty, not border security.”

“If Joe Biden truly wanted to shut down the border, he could do so with a swipe of the same pen, but he never will because he is controlled by radical left Democrats who seek to destroy America,” the campaign said. “The border invasion and migrant crime will not stop until Crooked Joe Biden is deported from the White House.”

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.