Biden puts cap on illegal immigration

Published 6 June 2024 at 07.54

Foreign. If more than 2,500 illegal immigrants per day come to the United States, the border must be closed and no more asylum applications will be tried. This system is now being introduced by President Joe Biden.

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The presidential election is five months away and Joe Biden is under pressure. The opinion polls show that Donald Trump now has a clear advantage.

One of the things that is on Biden's plate is that illegal immigration to the United States has increased to historically unprecedented levels and caused chaos at the border.

Now the president is launching what is being described as the toughest immigration rules any Democratic president has put in place, AP reports.

Biden is to sign a presidential order giving him the authority to temporarily close the border with Mexico when a certain amount of illegal immigrants immigrants entered.

The decision means that the president will have the right to close the border in practice and deny asylum to illegal immigrants. This should be possible when 2,500 illegal immigrations are registered per day on average for a week, writes ABC News. When the average number is down to 1,500 per week again, the border should be opened and asylum applications will continue to be accepted.

Joe Biden says the aim is to “take control of the border”, but points out according to the AP that he “always considered immigration to be America's lifeblood”. He accuses Donald Trump and the Republicans of sabotaging his efforts to deal with the border chaos through regular legislation and of using the situation to attack him.

Donald Trump tried to put forward a similar proposal in 2018, but was then blocked that of court. So-called legal resistance is also expected in this case.