By Julia Ainsley and Monica Alba -
NBC News
The Biden administration is considering executive action to deter illegal immigration across the southern border, according to two US officials.
With passage of border security legislation in Congress
looking unlikely
, plans under consideration indicate the White House wants to take action before numbers at the border, which have dropped over the past month, rise again. as expected.
The plans have been studied for months, according to officials.
In December, when Congress was preparing to go on vacation without a solution for the border, illegal crossings in the southwest demarcation reached records of more than 10,000 a day.
President Joe Biden walks along the border between the United States and Mexico on January 8, 2023.Andrew Harnik / AP
The unilateral measures under consideration could upset some progressives in Congress, officials said, but they said Democratic mayors who have asked for more help from the federal government to deal with the influx of migrants into their cities would be pleased.
The measures are still being drafted and are not expected to be implemented soon.
This Wednesday, Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan border bill that
they had negotiated with Democrats and the Biden administration
for months.
In a statement, a White House spokesperson said: "The Administration spent months negotiating in good faith to deliver the toughest and fairest bipartisan border security bill in decades, because we need Congress to make meaningful policy reforms and provide funding to secure our border."
"Today, Congressional Republicans have chosen to put partisan politics before our national security and have voted against what border agents have said they need. No regulatory action will achieve what the bipartisan national security agreement would have achieved for of border security and the immigration system in general.
Regardless of how much any executive action might appear to achieve in terms of immigration enforcement both at the border and in the country's interior, officials said, it would pale in comparison to the effects that would have occurred if Congress would have passed the border security bill.
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"It's a plan B
," commented an official.
Both said doing nothing was not an option.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden argued that the bipartisan bill would have "made important changes to the broken immigration system," calling the measure "the toughest and fairest" border law ever proposed. never.
Biden faces growing political pushback, some from members of his own party, over his management of the border in the midst of his re-election campaign.
His intention is to cite the Republican turn in bipartisan border legislation as evidence that, for political reasons, the GOP doesn't really want to solve the problem.
However, Biden remains vulnerable on this issue, trailing his likely 2024 opponent, former President Donald Trump, by more than 30 points when it comes to
border security and immigration control
, according to an NBC News poll released this week.
The Biden Administration has already taken multiple unilateral measures to try to stop the flow of immigrants.
[Anti-immigrant convoy demonstrates at the southern border of Texas and attracts Trump supporters]
In May, when COVID-19 restrictions at the border were scheduled to be lifted, the Department of Homeland Security introduced restrictions that would make it possible for more immigrants to be quickly deported.
fast.
However, the large number of immigrants detained by border agents forced the vast majority to be released.