Why Biden’s Executive Order Won’t Solve the Illegal Immigration Crisis

Joe Biden announced his highly anticipated executive order to supposedly secure the border on Tuesday. With it, the president attempted to do the impossible: avoid impeding the mass illegal migration for which his policies are directly responsible while convincing Americans he is “doing something”—at last—to secure the border.

This “unserious” proclamation-plus-rule combo platter (a Presidential Proclamation on Securing the Border and the Joint DHS-DOJ Interim Final Rule to Restrict Asylum During High Encounters at the Southern Border) will do the first but not the second.

It’s hard to imagine there is an American out there who can be persuaded that Biden has gotten religion on enforcing U.S. immigration law, three and a half years and about 10 million illegal immigrants too late. The White House fact sheet announcing the proclamation and rule proclaims that “President Biden believes we must secure our border,” but if so, this belief was not manifested by a single action in his entire term.

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As usual, Biden blames “global conditions,” “Congress’ failure,” and a “broken immigration system” for the massive flood of illegal aliens drawn by his catch-and-release and work authorization policies. The fact sheet claims Republicans put “partisan politics ahead of national security” by voting against the “toughest and fairest set of reforms in decades.” That’s a reference to a Senate border bill that was rejected soundly in February and again in May.

“Tough” it was not. Among its many flaws, that bill would have locked into law most of Biden’s unprecedented arrogations of authority to release and parole millions of inadmissible aliens into the U.S. and invent ways to let them stay indefinitely.

So how will the proclamation/rule work?

Having claimed for years that he didn’t have the authority to secure the border, Biden is now using Immigration and Nationality Act sections 212(f) and 215(a) to suspend the entry of illegal entrants—but only temporarily “when the Southern border is overwhelmed,” and not permanently. The suspension “will be discontinued when the number of migrants who cross the border between ports of entry is low enough for America’s system to safely and effectively manage border operations.”

Who gets to decide when we are “overwhelmed” or when the numbers of those illegally crossing into the United States are “low enough?” For that, America will have to rely on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the impeached open-borders fox currently guarding the border henhouse. His credibility is zero.

Mayorkas also gets the right to exempt anyone he wants from the new proclamation “based on the totality of the circumstances,” including “urgent humanitarian” and “public health interests,” or “operational considerations.” In Mayorkas’ hands, these are loopholes big enough to bring in an army.

Further undermining the new policies are the “humanitarian exceptions” for unaccompanied children and “victims of trafficking.” Open-borders advocates and an army of lawyers and activists will argue that everyone showing up at the border is a victim of some kind. And given that the Department of Homeland Security doesn’t verify family relationships or ages, cartels and adult illegal migrants will still be able to continue exploiting children to facilitate their entry and release into the United States.

A DHS fact sheet announcing the interim final rule said it “will better enable the department to quickly remove individuals without a legal basis to remain in the United States.” Yet DHS has made little effort to remove those kinds of individuals in the past three and a half years, including many who commit crimes while supposedly seeking asylum. And as with the proclamation, these restrictions “will be discontinued when encounters fall below certain levels”—again, at the discretion of Mayorkas.

The rule says that illegal arrivals will still be allowed a “credible fear screening with an asylum officer if they manifest or express a fear of return to their country or country of removal, a fear of persecution or torture, or an intention to apply for asylum.” This will exclude hardly anyone. That’s because at this point, there aren’t many illegals coming to the border who are not well-schooled by their smugglers, relatives, or social media influencers to express all of the above, whether true or not.

The DHS rule will go into effect “until 14 calendar days after there has been a 7-consecutive-calendar-day average of less than 1,500 encounters between the ports of entry” and kick in again when “there has been a 7-consecutive-calendar-day average of 2,500 encounters or more.” But as “secretary-approved” processes like the president’s bogus parole programs using the phone app CBP One at ports of entry are also excepted, Mayorkas can ramp these up like gangbusters to avoid triggering the caps.

Aliens are also excepted if “exceptionally compelling circumstances” exist, like an “acute medical emergency” or “an imminent and extreme threat to life or safety.” Anyone who can’t lie well enough meet that bar just isn’t trying.

Even before the proclamation/rule combination was announced, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called it “too little too late now,” and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., called it an “election-year stunt that won’t distract voters from Joe Biden’s disastrous, failed immigration policies.”

After his White House announcement, Biden walked woodenly off the podium, looking and sounding tired. You can’t blame him. He knows this border security Hail Mary is full of something—but it’s not grace.