NORAH O’DONNELL: President Biden is under intense political pressure to curb illegal immigration. It's a top concern for voters, one that Donald Trump and his allies have seized on. And tomorrow Biden is expected to take action issuing a major executive order allowing him to partially shut down the asylum process at the southern border. CBS News was the first to break the story, and tonight our Nancy Cordes is at The White House. Nancy, good to see you. So I understand this is going to be the most restrictive border policy ever enacted by a Democratic president, why now?
NANCY CORDES: Well, Norah, The White House had been hoping that Congress would take this step. It didn’t. This represents a major change to immigration policy, and we’re told that the president is going to sign this executive order tomorrow. CBS News has learned that this new order will allow U.S. immigration officials to deport migrants without processing their asylum claims any time the number of illegal border crossings tops a specific threshold, and sources tell CBS that threshold is likely to be 2500 migrant apprehensions a day. Which means this partial ban could be triggered on day one because the number of apprehensions at the southern border in May was higher than that. It was 3800 a day according to the Border Patrol. Right now, of course, asylum-seekers are allowed to stay in the U.S. until their case is processed, which can take years. And critics say that creates an incentive for those who don't qualify to come to the U.S. anyway. This new executive order is almost certainly going to face legal challenges down the road, The White House appears to be going this route now because Republicans rejected a bipartisan senate deal that would have done something similar. Norah.
O’DONNELL: Nancy Cordes with that big news tonight. Thank you so much.
. steve malzberg
. steve malzberg
