Biden campaign defends border order: ‘Being president is not about theater’

President Biden’s reelection campaign on Tuesday defended the executive order to limit asylum at the U.S. southern border, accusing Republicans and former President Trump of only wanting chaos.

In a statement first shared with The Hill, Biden campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz highlighted how Trump urged the GOP to block a bipartisan border bill negotiated in the Senate so the border would remain a major issue for Election Day.

“The American people demand solutions to fix our broken immigration system, but at every step of the way, Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans have made clear they only want chaos and partisan politics as usual,” Munoz said. “Every American should know that Trump proudly killed the strongest bipartisan border bill in a generation — siding with fentanyl traffickers over the Border Patrol and our security.”

He added, “President Biden knows being president is not about theater — it’s about taking action on the issues our communities care most about. Despite Trump and his loyalists’ inaction, President Biden is taking action today.”  

The order announced Tuesday will be in effect when the seven-day average of daily border crossings exceeds 2,500 between ports of entry. When it kicks in, U.S. border officials will stop implementing credible fear interviews for asylum claims and work to quickly expel foreign nationals who’ve crossed the border between ports of entry. 

The order comes after the bipartisan framework in the Senate was blocked by Republicans for a second time. Biden has faced intense pressure to act unilaterally on the border and during an election year, when the situation at the southern border is set to play a major role. 

The Biden campaign on Tuesday highlighted that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) killed the border deal in February, calling it “dead on arrival.” And, it noted that Trump in January told supporters he’s fine being blamed for tanking the bill.

The campaign also pointed to a Navigator Research poll from February that found that 2 in 3 Americans supported the border deal and noted Trump has vowed to implement a deportation operation in a second term.

Trump, in touting his deportation proposal to remove immigrants who illegally entered the U.S., has cited the Eisenhower administration’s deportation efforts through a program known as “Operation Wetback” that used military tactics to round up migrants. He said during a visit to Eagle Pass, Texas, that local police would be the key to his proposal.