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Expert: "Closing" the Border Would Violate Asylum Law

February 04, 2024 (1 min read)

Maria Ramirez Uribe, PolitiFact, Feb. 2, 2024

"President Joe Biden says he has done everything under his authority to try to reduce illegal immigration at the U.S. southern border, and that he’ll be able to do more once Congress passes a new bill. But Republicans disagree. Biden said Jan. 26 that he’s waiting for a bipartisan bill being negotiated in the Senate to give him more resources and "a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed." Although the bill’s text remains under wraps, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., says Biden doesn’t need new authority to decrease illegal border crossings. Immigration law and recent Supreme Court precedents already give Biden the authority to secure the border, Johnson said in a Jan. 27 X post. So, who’s right? Is there more Biden can do? Or is it on Congress to update immigration law, which hasn’t been changed in decades? ... "Closing the border arguably would violate" domestic and international asylum laws, said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a Cornell University immigration law professor."