White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has claimed for years that there was no crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border despite millions of illegal immigrants pouring across the border.
Now she says Biden is preparing to use an executive order to restore order — and one reporter wanted to know why Biden waited for three years.
Jean-Pierre was stunned… and oddly, blamed Republicans for the crisis.
“Now we’re hearing about executive actions that could be taken. Why wait this long?” the reporter asked.
“I’ve been very clear, we’ve made no decisions on that,” she replied. “I’m not going to get into policy discussions or hypotheticals that we’re hearing right now.”
“To be very clear, the focus here should be what happened in the Senate — in a bipartisan agreement — that Republicans have rejected.”
Take a look —
Karine Jean-Pierre blames Republicans when asked why Biden has waited three years to consider executive action to secure the border (after his executive actions decimated border security) pic.twitter.com/Yyo8vkoKb9
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 23, 2024
The White House announced this week that it is considering using federal immigration proveisions previously used by former President Donald Trump to enact a crackdown at the southern border.
The administration, facing abysmal polling, has been exploring options that Biden could deploy to restore order heading into the 2024 presidential election.
The exploration of such avenues by Biden’s team underscores the pressure the president faces this election year on illegal immigration and the border, which have been among his biggest political liabilities since he took office.
Arrests for illegal crossings on the U.S. border with Mexico fell slightly in January after record highs in December. But officials fear those figures will rise again, particularly as the November presidential election nears.
The immigration authority the administration has been looking into is outlined in Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which gives a president broad leeway to block entry of certain immigrants into the United States if it would be “detrimental” to the national interest of the United States.
Trump, who is the likely GOP candidate to face off against Biden this fall, repeatedly leaned on the 212(f) power while in office, including his controversial ban to bar travelers from Muslim-majority nations.
Biden rescinded that ban on his first day in office through executive order.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has also called on Biden to use the 212(f) authority.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article