After months of claiming he couldn’t act without Congress, President Joe Biden is changing his tune on the border crisis.
The commander in chief is reportedly now weighing executive actions that take a page out of former President Donald Trump’s playbook when it comes to stemming the tide of illegal migrants entering the United States each day.
On Thursday’s show, Megyn was joined by the hosts of Ruthless – Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan, and John Ashbrook – to discuss what is behind the sudden policy shift from the Biden administration.
Policy Shift
Just last month, Biden was claiming he needed Congress to act on the now dead bipartisan immigration reform the Senate was working on in order to get the border crisis under control. He was widely criticized at the time for making the claim given the executive powers he possesses, and now it appears as though he is ready to take action.
Both The New York Times and CNN are reporting that the White House is considering an executive order to restrict migrants who enter the country illegally from applying for asylum. It would rely on a portion of the immigration code known as 212(F) that lets the president bar the entry of foreigners deemed “detrimental to the interests of the United States.”
The maneuver calls to mind the so-called “Muslim ban” enacted by the Trump administration that was struck down by the courts in 2018. “He’s considering implementing – by executive action, without Congress – many of the same things that President Trump implemented back in 2018 when he tried to block certain migration,” Megyn noted. “Biden and the left criticized that to no end… and now he’s considering using that same provision.”
The Biden administration is also said to be considering resurrecting portions of the failed Senate border proposal. One would allow the president to essentially shut down the border to new entrants if there are more than 5,000 illegal entrees over the course of a week or more than 8,500 in a single day.
Too Little, Too Late?
While White House officials are claiming no decisions have been made yet, Megyn said the reports shed light on the president’s headspace. “President Biden is apparently scared sh-tless of the numbers on immigration and how people think he’s handling the job and has now realized he actually can do something about it,” she noted. “It’s obvious that he’s terrified and he’s actually paying attention to the pulse now.”
Ashbrook said that the problem Biden currently faces is entirely of his own making. “I heard Biden say that if he had these authorities, he would have acted on his first day as president of the United States,” he noted. What Biden actually did on his first day as president on January 20, 2021, was release his “Proclamation on the Termination of Emergency with Respect to the Southern Border of the United States and Redirection of Funds Diverted to Border Wall Construction” to end much of the work his predecessor had done to shore up the border.
Since then, Ashbrook noted that eight and a half million people have entered the country illegally. “That’s the same population of all five boroughs in New York City in this country illegally while Joe Biden was president, thanks to the proclamation that he issued to open the border the day he was sworn in,” he said.
That is why Holmes believes the current actions are “disingenuous” and political. “He doesn’t care a lick about the actual problem. In fact, it’s by design. That is what he said he would do, and that is what he has done,” he said. “Now he’s got a political problem, and what he cares a lot about is his 33 percent approval rating and the fact that this issue – perhaps more than anything else – is preventing a second term for Joe Biden.”
Megyn agreed. “It’s too late, and the people know at this point that it would just be a pander,” she explained. “As soon as they re-elect this guy, he’s going to undo it all because, when he did the thing on day one, he said he wanted people to believe the United States was ‘more humane.’ That’s where his heart lies. It’s not in protecting our borders.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Ruthless by tuning in to episode 729 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.