In the waning days of the Biden administration, Democratic leaders said then-president Joe Biden couldn't do much to stem the surge of illegal immigration at the southern border without an act of Congress.
Then-White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, for example, told CNN in February 2024 that "the folks who are getting in the way" of immigration reform "are Republicans." Around the same time, at a press briefing, she said there was no "executive action that actually could have done, or implemented in an effective way, what that bipartisan agreement could have," referring to legislation proposed at the time by Sen. James Lankford (R., Okla.).
The Trump administration appears to think it can do a lot through executive action. On Inauguration Day, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that declared a national emergency at the border and directed the military to increase its presence there. Trump also reinstated the "Remain in Mexico" policy from his first term and designated cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
After Trump's first full week in office, the number of illegal migrants arriving at the border has decreased by over 60 percent, Fox News reported Tuesday.