Joe Biden will announce tough restrictive measures to reduce the number of immigrants illegally crossing the border with Mexico, US media reported on Monday, as the issue is also considered decisive in this election campaign.

The US president is expected to sign an executive order that would authorize some government officials to deport immigrants who cross the border illegally without first reviewing their asylum claims.

Joe Biden is expected to unveil the measures during a ceremony at the White House with mayors of border cities in attendance. They will be applied when there is a jump in immigrant arrivals, more specifically when they exceed 2,500 per day.

Given that the arrivals are currently over 2,500 per day, this means that the borders will be closed with the signing of the presidential executive order.

When contacted by AFP, the US government declined to confirm the information.

“From day one” the Biden administration “has been looking at what steps could be taken,” a White House official told AFP, adding that “no final decisions have been made” on what steps could be taken by executive orders.

Immigration has become a key issue in the election campaign ahead of Joe Biden’s showdown with his predecessor Donald Trump, who has used inflammatory rhetoric about immigrants, going so far as to say they are “poisoning the blood” of the country, with Democrats to immediately rush to condemn the reference to Hitler’s phraseology.

In the 12 months to October 2023, a record 2.4 million people were apprehended along the border with Mexico. In December, some 10,000 people, forced by violence or poverty to flee Latin American countries, crossed the border illegally every day.

Faced with those numbers and the relentless right-wing attacks on the issue, Joe Biden has already said he plans to use his powers to attack the problem, despite criticism from the left wing of his party.

The measures reportedly being considered are among the most restrictive ever implemented by a Democratic president and are based on the same mechanism used by the Trump administration to ban immigration from Muslim-majority countries.

They will likely be challenged in US courts.