White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that executive actions cannot replace the impact of legislation in Congress to secure the southern border.
“The immigration system has been broken for decades now, and congressional Republicans are choosing to put partisan politics [over fixing it],” Jean-Pierre said. “No executive action, no matter how aggressive, can deliver the significant policy reforms and additional resources Congress can provide.”
Republicans have argued for years that President Joe Biden could stem the flow of illegal immigration by reinstating the Trump-era Remain in Mexico policy, the national emergency declaration, and border wall construction, among other things.
Biden halted all three via executive order on his first day in office, and illegal border crossings have set records in each year of his term. The president has taken 535 executive actions related to immigration, drawing the ire of GOP lawmakers.
But the president is saying the border crisis is the fault of Republicans after they rejected a compromise deal earlier this week. Biden is also considering some executive actions of his own, though details remain scarce, according to NBC News.
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Multiple reporters asked follow-up questions about executive actions related to border policy, including whether the Biden administration has a Plan B.
“We are always going to look at our possible actions, always, but I want to be really clear,” Jean-Pierre responded. “There’s no executive action that could’ve done what that piece of agreement would have been able to do.”
