President Biden’s executive order to limit asylum seekers crossing the southern border drew mixed reactions among House Democrats, with some applauding the move while others accused the president of breaking long-honored promises.
Democrats have tried to use the issue of the chaos at the U.S./Mexico border in recent months as a political cudgel against Republicans, arguing that the GOP sank Congress’ best shot at securing the border in February when Senate Republicans killed a long-awaited border bill.
Republicans maintained that the effort did not go far enough, and badgered Mr. Biden to instead take immediate action to solve the border crisis with the stroke of a pen.
Mr. Biden did that, in part, earlier this week with his executive order that would shut down the border whenever there is an average of more than 2,500 daily encounters with illegal immigrants at the southern border. The closure would remain in effect until illegal encounters drop below 1,500 for at least a week.
Now that Mr. Biden has made an effort to stymie the flow of migrants, fractures are appearing in the House Democratic Conference.
Some, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, are supportive of the effort.
“President Biden has taken decisive action to try in a good faith manner to address the challenges at the border in a manner consistent with our country’s heritage as a nation anchored in the rule of law,” Mr. Jeffries said.
Others hope to see the order rescinded or deemed unconstitutional.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said that Mr. Biden was making a mistake, and mirroring the same tactics deployed by his predecessor, former President Donald Trump.
“I think it is not what he said during the campaign, and I think it’s using tools — and I want to be clear that Joe Biden is significantly different from Donald Trump — but he’s using the tools that Donald Trump used, and that we all spoke out against,” said Ms. Jayapal, Washington Democrat.
“I hope this will be declared unconstitutional just as Trump’s was when he tried to do the same thing,” she continued. “But it’s troubling that our Democratic president and some Democrats are endorsing this strategy because it’s not going to fix things at the border.”
Members of the Democrat-led Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Congressional Black Caucus have also come out against the executive action. They contended that Mr. Biden should have taken a more nuanced approach to avoid possibly harming migrants fleeing violence or persecution, and that his decision would be proven ineffective in curbing illegal immigration.
Meanwhile, Republicans have bashed the move as a political charade made during an election year. House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said that the order was nothing more than “window dressing” that did not go far enough to actually address issues at the border.
But some Democrats are still pointing the finger at Republicans, blaming their decision to adhere to the former president’s wish to torpedo the Senate’s border bill as the catalyst for Mr. Biden’s latest action.
“The main fumble was when Trump essentially vetoed the legislation coming out of the Senate, and said he didn’t want that bipartisan legislation,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, Maryland Democrat, told The Times. “So Trump clearly didn’t want a border solution. He wanted a border crisis to run against the end. So President Biden is now being forced to use executive orders to compensate for the failure of Congress to act.”
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.