Biden Suggests It’s Risky for Him to Secure Border by Executive Orders

President Joe Biden indicated in a new interview that he is considering taking executive action to secure the southern border. 

“Have you made a final decision on taking executive order in terms of what you want to do at the border? That includes the power to shut down the border, as it was suggested,” Univision’s Enrique Acevedo asked Biden in an interview that aired late Tuesday night.

“Well, it’s suggested that we’re examining whether or not I have that power,” Biden answered. 

“I would have that power under the legislation,” the president continued, referring to the Senate’s $118 billion spending bill, which included a measure that would allow the president to close the border after 5,000 illegal aliens crossed in a single day. That bill failed in the Senate in February, and House Republican leadership said it would have been dead on arrival in the lower chamber. 

“There’s no guarantee that I have that power all by myself without legislation,” Biden said in reference to closing the border, despite what his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, was able to do through executive orders.

Biden, a Democrat, added that “some have suggested I should just go ahead and try it, and if I get shut down by the court, I get shut down by the court.”

“But we’re trying to work through that right now,” he said.