Statutory Authority for President to Close the Border

Posted on: January 29, 2024 at 14:41:09 CT

Dear Rask, JG, Ace, et al.:

I am going to spell this out for you in simple chapter and verse so you hopefully can understand it.

With the stroke of a pen, Biden as President has ample authority to fix the border crisis all by himself. WE DO NOT NEED ANOTHER LAW OR BILL. WE NEED A LEADER WHO IS WILLING TO ENFORCE THE EXISTING LAWS AND/OR THE CONSTITUTION

From the Congressional Research Service, April 12, 2019 edition article "Can the President Close the Borders? Relevant Laws and Consideration."

Statutory Bases of Executive Authority

The executive branch possesses two types of statutory authority that it might leverage in support of a
decision to restrict or suspend the entry of goods or people at ports of entry on the southern border.
First, some statutes supply executive agencies with authority over border operations. Perhaps most
relevant is 19 U.S.C. § 1318(b)(2), which provides as follows:

[T]he Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, when necessary to respond to a specific threat to human life or national interests, is authorized to close temporarily any Customs office or port of entry or take any other lesser action that may be necessary to respond to the specific threat.

More generally, the Homeland Security Act makes the Secretary of Homeland Security responsible for
“[s]ecuring the borders, territorial waters, ports, terminals, waterways, and air, land, and sea
transportation systems of the United States, including managing and coordinating those functions
transferred to the Department at ports of entry.” A provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act
(INA), somewhat similarly, grants the Secretary “the power and duty to control and guard the boundaries
and borders of the United States against the illegal entry of aliens.”
However, the INA also directs DHS to
follow certain inspection procedures, including for asylum seekers who lack valid entry documents, and
constitutional principles grant U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents (LPRs) certain rights with
respect to reentering the country, as discussed further below.

Second, other statutes grant the executive branch broad authority to restrict the entry of aliens. INA §
212(f), which came to public attention when President Trump invoked it as authority for the “Travel Ban”
executive orders and proclamation, confers exceptionally broad power on the President in this regard:

"Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United
States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for
such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as
immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be
appropriate."

Another statute, also cited in the Travel Ban orders and proclamation, allows the President to restrict the
entry of aliens according to “such reasonable rules, regulations, and orders, and subject to such limitations
and exceptions as the President may prescribe.” In Trump v. Hawaii, which upheld the Travel Ban
proclamation as a valid exercise of the President’s authority under INA § 212(f), the Supreme Court
reasoned that the statute “exudes deference to the President” and “vests [him] with ‘ample power’ to
impose entry restrictions in addition to those elsewhere enumerated in the INA.” The Court also
emphasized that presidential determinations related to national security traditionally receive deference
Congressional Research Service 3 and declined to probe the national security justifications that the President gave for the proclamation’s entry restrictions on broad categories of nationals of seven countries.

As you should recall, Biden came in and one hour after he was sworn in struck down Trump's executive orders on the border and here we are on this mess. Now, after 8 million people have illegally crossed, he wants to put forth a bill so he can try to find a way to put the blame on the Republicans for his failure to act. It is reprehensible and deceitful and also Page 1 in the Democrat playbook. I would expect nothing less from Captain Pass The Buck.