U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, the lead Democrat who negotiated a
bipartisan border security bill introduced this year, said on
CBS News' "Face the Nation" that U.S. courts would likely strike
down sweeping action by Biden.
"The president has such limited ability to issue executive
orders that would have an impact on the border. He can't conjure
resources out of thin air," Murphy said. "If he were to try to
shut down portions of the border, the courts would throw that
out, I think, within a matter of weeks."
Biden, a Democrat seeking another term in Nov. 5 elections, has
said his administration is looking at executive actions to
potentially block migrants at the border after Republicans
rejected the bipartisan Senate bill this year. Republicans
spurned the measure after former President Donald Trump, Biden's
Republican challenger, came out against it.
Senate Republicans blocked the bill again last week and
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said it "doesn't secure
the border" and "incentivizes further illegal immigration."
The number of migrants caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico
border has dropped this year compared with a monthly record high
in December, a trend U.S. officials partly attribute to
increased enforcement by Mexico.
Murphy said the decrease was due to "smart, effective diplomacy
between the United States and the Mexican government" but warned
that the dropoff may not be permanent and that illegal crossings
remain high compared with a decade ago.
"We have to just recognize that without updating the laws of
this country, without surging more resources to the border, we
can't count on the numbers staying as low as they are today,"
Murphy said.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean Pierre said last week that
the Senate bill would deliver "significant policy changes,
resources, and personnel needed to secure our border and make
our country safer."
Migrants and asylum seekers transit through Mexico to the U.S.
to escape violence, economic distress and negative impacts of
climate change, according the United Nations.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson in Philadelphia; Editing by Mary
Milliken)
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