GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced new executive action in an effort to combat what many have seen as a crisis at the southern U.S. border.
"To protect America as a land that welcomes immigrants, we must first secure the border and secure it now," Biden said.
According to the White House, the president's order suspends entry of noncitizens who cross the southern border illegally or without authorization.
The actions are being paired with a new federal rule from the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security that halts new asylum claims for those entering illegally over the southern border until 14 days after the number of encounters falls to a week-long average of less than 1,500 per day.
The measures are temporary, the White House emphasized, but would be re-introduced when the number of claims reaches 2,500 per day.
"It is not a substitute for the comprehensive plans that we need to reform a broken system, but it is taking action within [Biden's] authority to deliver for the American people," senior Biden campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz told 13 ON YOUR SIDE.
Here in Michigan, however, state Republicans are pushing back on the president's announcement, saying it's too little, too late.
"Unfortunately, what [Biden's] doing isn't going to solve anything at the border," State Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Township) said. "The border crisis is still there."
"Michigan citizens are hurting," Michigan GOP Chairman Pete Hoekstra said. "Our local governments and our state government is being strained because of President Biden's unwillingness to control the border. Today, Joe Biden is going to try to confront this policy. It's three and a half years too late."
Federal Republican officials from Michigan also expressed their displeasure with the president's actions.
"President Biden’s open-border policies created the crisis along our southern border,” said Congressman Bill Huizenga (R-MI). “This announcement by President Biden is nothing more than a political stunt in an election year. House Republicans have consistently voted to restore border integrity, end the Biden Administration’s catch-and-release policies, and reinstate the Remain in Mexico Policy."
Conversely, the Biden campaign is laying the blame for the current situation at the feet of congressional Republicans and former President Donald Trump, following the collapse of a bipartisan border deal earlier this year - the idea of which the former president had decried as "another Gift to the Radical Left Democrats."
"Time and time again, Republicans, at the behest of Donald Trump, have failed to work with us, have failed to partner with us," Munoz said. "And that's why it is so important that we have a president like Joe Biden, that will pull every lever to deliver on an issue that the American people demand action on."
It's a message echoed by some of the president's allies.
"While we want the President taking action where possible, Executive action can only do so much," Congresswoman Hillary Scholten (D-MI) said. "We had a bipartisan plan to address the border crisis, and Republicans threw it away for the sake of their political talking points."
But it hasn't just been Republicans that have criticized the move. Some lawmakers within the president's own party have expressed their concerns as well.
"This attempt to shut down the border to asylum seekers uses the same section of U.S. immigration laws that convicted felon Donald Trump used to implement the Muslim Ban and in attempts to cut off all access to asylum," House Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said. "While there are some differences from Trump’s actions, the reality is that this utilizes the same failed enforcement-only approach, penalizes asylum seekers, and furthers a false narrative that these actions will ‘fix’ the border."
Munoz responded to those concerns by painting what he feels is a clear contrast between the actions of the former and current presidents, now both major frontrunners in the race for the White House.
"An overwhelming majority of Americans, including Latinos, understand the need to take actions like this, to address this issue with the limited resources that we have," Munoz said. "So, there is no way to compare these actions between the former president, who has spent his entire political career attacking immigrants, and Joe Biden, who is fighting for solutions."
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