President Biden is planning executive action that would allow him to shut down the US-Mexico border once the number of migrant crossings reaches 4,000 per day, a source close to the White House told The Post Wednesday.
The order would match a provision in the bipartisan border bill that failed to pass the Senate in February, which gave the president authority to expel migrants when border crossings reached the same daily average.
The legislative proposal would have given the homeland security secretary discretionary authority to carry out removals — but would have made deportations mandatory when illegal entries surpassed 5,000 per day over a one-week period.
A federal government source confirmed to The Post that an executive order to limit entries was coming, though it was unclear when it would be announced.
The White House declined to comment.
In March, the most recent month for which statistics are available, southwestern border authorities stopped an average of more than 6,300 migrants per day — a figure which does not include so-called “gotaways” who escaped detection and arrest.
The US Border Patrol currently has more than 10,000 migrants in custody nationwide, according to internal Customs and Border Protection data exclusively obtained by The Post.
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