Biden did not close the U.S.-Mexico border in the literal sense — ports of entry stayed open, trade and legal travel continued, and people kept crossing — but in June 2024 he signed an executive action that effectively shut down asylum processing between ports of entry, and that shutdown was still in force when he left office in January 2025. Whether that counts as “closing the border” depends on what you mean by the phrase. For asylum seekers crossing between official crossings, access to the U.S. protection system was largely cut off for the last seven months of his presidency.
The June 2024 Asylum Shutdown
On June 4, 2024, Biden signed Proclamation 10773, invoking Sections 212(f) and 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to suspend asylum processing at the southern border.1The American Presidency Project. Proclamation 10773: Securing the Border It worked through a numerical trigger rather than a flat ban.
- Asylum processing shuts down when the seven-day average of daily encounters between ports of entry exceeds 2,500.
- The shutdown lifts 14 days after encounters fall below a seven-day average of 1,500 per day.
- Migrants who cross between ports of entry while the shutdown is active become ineligible for asylum absent “exceptionally compelling circumstances” and are subject to removal within hours or days.2NBC News. Biden Signs Executive Order Shutting Down Southern Border
The 2,500 threshold had already been exceeded when Biden signed the proclamation, so the shutdown took effect immediately.2NBC News. Biden Signs Executive Order Shutting Down Southern Border Unaccompanied children were exempted.1The American Presidency Project. Proclamation 10773: Securing the Border Crossings never fell below the 1,500-per-day off-switch, so the shutdown never lifted during Biden’s remaining time in office.3Migration Policy Institute. Biden Immigration Legacy
Asylum seekers could still request protection through the CBP One mobile app, which scheduled up to 1,450 daily appointments at eight land ports of entry.4American Immigration Council. CBP One Overview Between ports of entry, though, the asylum door was closed for the balance of Biden’s term.
What Happened at the Border After the Order
Encounters fell sharply. Southwest border apprehensions between ports of entry dropped from 117,905 in May 2024 to 83,532 in June, to 56,400 in July, and to 53,858 in September 2024 — the lowest monthly total since August 2020.5Pew Research Center. Migrant Encounters at the U.S.-Mexico Border The administration reported an overall 55% reduction in illegal crossings between ports of entry.6The American Presidency Project. Border Encounters Hit Lowest Level Since August 2020
The proclamation was not the only reason. An April 2024 agreement between Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador committed both countries to reduce irregular crossings, and López Obrador said daily arrivals had already dropped from roughly 12,000 to 6,000 before Biden’s June action, crediting Mexican-funded aid programs in migrant source countries.7El País. Biden and López Obrador Agree to Take Measures to Tackle Migration
Removals climbed. Between June 5 and the end of September 2024, the Department of Homeland Security removed or returned more than 160,000 people to over 145 countries.6The American Presidency Project. Border Encounters Hit Lowest Level Since August 2020 In the 12 months after Title 42 ended, the administration removed or returned 775,000 migrants — the highest annual figure since 2010.8Migration Policy Institute. Biden Deportation Record
How the Border Got There: Biden’s Earlier Moves
The June 2024 shutdown did not come out of nowhere. Biden’s border posture tightened steadily over four years, moving from reversing Trump-era restrictions to imposing new ones.
Title 42 Stayed, Then Ended
Biden kept the Trump-era Title 42 public health order in place for more than two years after taking office. The policy allowed immediate expulsion of migrants without asylum processing and produced 1.1 million expulsions in 2021 alone. Because expelled migrants could try again with no legal consequence, the repeat-crossing rate rose to 27% in 2021, inflating encounter numbers.9American Immigration Council. Rising Border Encounters in 2021 Title 42 expired on May 11, 2023, when the federal COVID-19 public health emergency ended. Over its full run, it had resulted in more than 2.8 million expulsions.10WOLA. End of Title 42
Legal Pathways
Alongside enforcement, Biden built legal channels intended to draw migrants away from unauthorized crossings. A humanitarian parole program for nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela let up to 30,000 people per month from those four countries enter the U.S. legally for two years with work authorization, provided they had a vetted financial sponsor and passed background checks. After the January 2023 expansion of the program, Border Patrol encounters with nationals of those four countries dropped by as much as 92%.11Center for American Progress. The Biden Administration’s Use of Immigration Parole Authority
The CBP One app became the primary method for asylum seekers to schedule appointments at ports of entry starting in May 2023. Through October 2024, it facilitated approximately 860,000 appointments.3Migration Policy Institute. Biden Immigration Legacy
The Circumvention of Lawful Pathways Rule
When Title 42 ended in May 2023, the administration replaced it with a “Circumvention of Lawful Pathways” rule that created a presumption of asylum ineligibility for migrants who crossed between ports of entry without first seeking and being denied asylum in a country they traveled through.10WOLA. End of Title 42 Critics called it a version of the Trump-era transit ban Biden had previously criticized. A federal judge in the Northern District of California vacated the rule in July 2023, finding it violated the Administrative Procedure Act, but the Ninth Circuit stayed that ruling on appeal, keeping the policy in place.12AILA. Featured Issue: Border Processing and Asylum
Why Biden Acted Alone in June 2024
Biden first tried legislation. A bipartisan Senate bill negotiated over four months by Senators James Lankford, Chris Murphy, and Kyrsten Sinema would have empowered the president to shut down the border when daily encounters exceeded certain thresholds, raised asylum standards, ended catch-and-release, and funded thousands of new enforcement personnel. The bill collapsed after former President Donald Trump pressured Republican lawmakers to reject it, failing on a 43-50 vote in May 2024, well short of the 60 votes needed to proceed.13NBC News. Senate Republicans Block Border Security Bill With legislation dead and daily arrivals having hit a record 12,000 on December 19, 2023, Biden turned to executive action a month later.14Migration Policy Institute. Biden at Three: Immigration Record
Was the Border Ever “Open”?
Republican critics frequently described Biden’s border as “open.” Fact-checkers and immigration experts consistently found the description misleading. The border was maintained with miles of fencing, surveillance systems, and nearly 20,000 Border Patrol agents. Title 42 expulsions continued through May 2023 and produced 1.2 million expulsions under Biden alone.15PolitiFact. Greg Abbott Refers to Biden’s Open Border Policies
The volume of encounters, though, was unprecedented. Authorities recorded 8.6 million migrant encounters at the Southwest border between January 2021 and October 2024, and an estimated 5.8 million migrants were paroled into the country or allowed entry for asylum processing during that period. The immigration court backlog grew from roughly 1.2 million cases when Biden took office to 3.6 million by the end of fiscal year 2024.3Migration Policy Institute. Biden Immigration Legacy Encounter numbers of that size gave the “open border” label political traction regardless of how many enforcement actions the administration was taking.
Where the Shutdown Stands Now
The ACLU and several immigrant advocacy organizations sued the Biden administration on June 12, 2024, in Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, arguing the rule was “flatly inconsistent” with federal asylum law, which permits migrants to apply for asylum regardless of how they enter the country.16Houston Public Media. ACLU Sues Biden Over New Executive Action
On May 9, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled for the plaintiffs and vacated the “Securing the Border” rule as unlawful. The court struck down the rule’s limits on asylum eligibility based on how migrants entered the country, its requirement that asylum seekers affirmatively express fear of persecution, and guidance that limited access to legal counsel before credible fear interviews.17Center for Gender and Refugee Studies. Las Americas v. DHS The government appealed to the D.C. Circuit in August 2025, and that appeal remains pending.18ACLU of DC. Las Americas v. DHS
So did Biden close the border? Not as a matter of physical closure. As a matter of asylum access between ports of entry, yes, for the final seven months of his presidency — through a proclamation that his critics on the left called a betrayal of asylum law and his critics on the right called too little, too late.