According to new statistics released Monday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), border encounters have fallen by more than 50% since President Joe Biden’s June 4 presidential proclamation and additional interim final rules.
“These executive actions have significantly increased the rate of immigrants being removed from the United States and reduced the number of people being released while awaiting removal proceedings, as explained in Department of Homeland Security fact sheets from June and July.” CBP explained.
DHS said it has removed or deported more than 131,000 individuals to more than 140 countries, a higher total number of removals and deportations in the past year than in any fiscal year since 2010.
“Data released today by U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows that President Biden “Since President Biden announced his firm new executive order for border security on June 4, encounters between ports of entry have declined significantly and remain at their lowest levels in recent years. July and August recorded the lowest number of encounters since September 2020. Encounters in August 2024 were 68% lower than August 2023 and are down more than 50% since President Biden announced his executive order,” White House spokesman Angelo Fernandez Hernandez said in a statement to PoliticusUSA.
Hernandez further said the victory belongs to President Biden and Vice President Harris because they worked with conservative Republicans on a bipartisan border bill, after former President Donald Trump Trump told them not to pass the bill because he thought chaos at the border would be good for his political future.
“For months, the Biden-Harris Administration worked with a bipartisan group of senators to craft a historic bipartisan border security agreement that would add thousands of frontline agents to the border. Yet Republicans voted against the agreement twice, demonstrating they are more interested in cynical politicking than border security. While the Biden-Harris Administration is taking effective measures, Republican officials are doing nothing.”
Republicans have countered Biden’s successful strategy by asking if he could have used executive orders earlier, why didn’t he do so? That’s a legitimate question to ask if you’re not a lawmaker or a former president.
The answer is that a good president tries to avoid usurping power from Congress through executive orders under the unitary executive theory, a theory supported by people like Chief Justice Roberts, who urged the Supreme Court to find that President Donald Trump’s (supposed) executive immunity is protected.
Expanding presidential power is rarely a good idea, but because presidential immunity has been upheld by this court, President Biden will probably at least fire DeJoy when he leaves office.
Thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration, the border is much more secure than it was before. No Republican can claim any part in this success. All they did was open up more drug and human trafficking to Donald Trump’s electoral advantage.
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