Biden’s border order: impractical policy, pragmatic politics

IT IS INDICATIVE of America’s putrid politics that President Joe Biden’s plan to crack down on migration at the southern border is meant not necessarily to succeed, but to convince voters that he is trying to succeed. On June 4th Mr Biden revealed an executive order that will theoretically allow him to deny asylum to migrants who cross illegally when their numbers are high.The administration has been mulling executive action since Senate Republicans, at Donald Trump’s behest, they had helped to craft. The order borrows ideas from that bill. It would bar from receiving asylum all those who cross between ports of entry when migrant encounters at the southern border exceed an average of 2,500 a day. That threshold would be . Asylum-seekers would be returned to Mexico or deported until arrests fall below 1,500 a day. The order reflects a conservative turn for Mr Biden, who suggested openness to migrants when he took office in 2021.