SAN DIEGO — President Joe Biden on Tuesday ordered a halt to asylum processing at the U.S. border with Mexico when illegal entries reach a threshold deemed excessive.

The measure takes effect immediately because the new policy is triggered when arrests for illegal entry reach 2,500. About 4,000 people already are entering the U.S. each day. It was a major policy shift on a critical election-year issue that’s exposed Biden to Republican criticism over an unprecedented surge in new arrivals in an election year.

The measure

Advocates say the new measure will put migrants in danger and violate international obligations to provide safe haven to people whose lives are threatened. The Biden administration denies that.

Legal challenges are imminent.

There are also serious questions of whether the new measure can stop large-scale migrant entries. Mexico has agreed to take back migrants who are not Mexican, but only in limited numbers. And the Biden administration doesn’t have the money and diplomatic support it needs to deport migrants long distances, to China and countries in Africa, for example.

Many who claim asylum today are free to live and work in the United States while their claims slowly wind through overwhelmed immigration courts.

Some questions and answers about Biden’s presidential proclamation:

HOW WILL THIS PLAY OUT ON THE GROUND?

The threshold triggers a halt on asylum until average daily arrests for illegal crossings fall below 1,500 for a week straight. The last time crossings were that low was around the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, in July 2020.

The pandemic-related asylum restrictions known as Title 42 carried no legal consequences and encouraged repeat attempts. Now, migrants will be issued deportation orders even if they are denied a chance to seek asylum. That will expose them to criminal prosecution if they try again and ban them for several years from legally entering the country. It’s a key difference.

Migrants who express fear for their safety if they’re deported will be screened by U.S. asylum officers but under a higher standard than what’s currently in place. If they pass, they can remain to pursue other forms of humanitarian protection, including those laid out in the U.N. Convention Against Torture.

Unaccompanied children are exempt, raising the possibility that some parents may send their sons and daughters across the border without them.

WHAT ROLE DOES MEXICO PLAY?

A critical one.

The U.S. has limited funding to fly people home to more than 100 countries, including many in Africa and Asia. It also lacks diplomatic sway and logistical arrangements to deport large numbers to many countries, including China, Russia and Venezuela.

A 1997 court order generally limits detention of families with a child under 18 to 20 days, a highly ambitious and perhaps unrealistic turnaround time to screen people who express fear of deportation and then put them on a flight.

Even for single adults, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has enough funds to only detain about 34,000 people at a time.

Mexico has agreed to take back up to 30,000 people a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, in addition to Mexicans. Its commitment does not extend to other nationalities.

This year, Mexico has also made it far more difficult for migrants to reach the U.S. border, largely by preventing them from riding freight trains and stopping them on buses to turn them around to southern Mexico. While Mexican authorities are blocking migrants’ advance, relatively few are deported, causing many to be stuck in Mexican cities far from the U.S. border.

Alicia Bárcena, Mexico’s foreign relations secretary, told reporters last month that Mexico won’t allow more than 4,000 illegal entries a day. President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, who takes office Oct. 1, is expected to continue policies of her mentor and Mexico’s current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

HAS THIS BEEN TRIED BEFORE?

This is the latest in a series of measures under the Biden and Trump administrations to deter asylum-seekers, none of which have had lasting impact.

In May 2023, Biden imposed similar obstacles to asylum for anyone who crossed the border illegally after passing through another country, such as Mexico. A federal appeals court allowed those restrictions to stay in place while advocates challenge it, but it appears to have little impact.

Illegal crossings fell after last year’s restrictions took effect, but the lull was short-lived as the number of screening officers was inadequate for the enormous task. The rule’s application in only a small percentage of arrests showed how budgets can fail to match ambitions.

Biden invoked a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that allows the president to ban entry for groups of people if their presence “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.” President Donald Trump used these powers to ban entry of people from some predominantly Muslim countries, though advocacy groups are expected to argue that Biden failed to meet that “detrimental” criterion.

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JERUSALEM, Israel — An independent group of experts warned Tuesday that it’s possible that famine is underway in northern Gaza but that the war between Israel and Hamas and restrictions on humanitarian access have impeded the data collection to prove it.

“It is possible, if not likely,” the group known as the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, or FEWS NET, said about famine in Gaza.

Concerns about deadly hunger have been high in recent months and spiked after the head of the World Food Program last month said northern Gaza had entered “full-blown famine” after nearly seven months of war. Experts at the U.N. agency later said Cindy McCain was expressing a personal opinion.

An area is considered to be in famine when three things occur: 20% of households have an extreme lack of food, or are essentially starving; at least 30% of the children suffer from acute malnutrition or wasting, meaning they’re too thin for their height; and two adults or four children per every 10,000 people are dying daily of hunger and its complications.

That’s according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a collection of U.N. agencies, governments and other bodies that in March warned famine was imminent in northern Gaza.

Tuesday’s report by FEWS NET is the first technical assessment by an international organization saying that famine is possibly occurring in northern Gaza.

Funded by the United States Agency for International Development, FEWS NET is an internationally recognized authority on famine that provides evidence-based and timely early warning information for food insecurity. It also helps inform decisions on humanitarian responses in some of the world’s most food insecure countries.

But for a formal declaration of famine, the data must be there.

Such a declaration could be used as evidence at the International Criminal Court as well as at the International Court of Justice, where Israel faces allegations of genocide.

The report cautioned that data collection would likely be impeded as long as the war goes on. It said people — including children — are dying of hunger-related causes across the territory and that those conditions will likely persist until at least July, if there isn’t a fundamental change in how food aid is distributed.

The report also cautioned that efforts to increase aid into Gaza are insufficient, and urged Israel’s government to act urgently.

The U.N. and international aid agencies for months have said not enough food or other humanitarian supplies are entering Gaza, and Israel faces mounting pressure from top ally the U.S. and others to let in more aid.

Israel has repeatedly denied there is famine underway in Gaza and rejected allegations it has used hunger as a weapon in its war against Hamas. It has opened a number of new crossings into Gaza in recent months, saying they helped increase the flow of aid.

But Israel has also been expanding its offensive in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, once the main hub of humanitarian aid operations. That invasion has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians facing hunger.

The Israeli military, which is responsible for the crossings into Gaza, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the FEWS NET report.

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One of the six finalists for the position of city administrator in Forest Lake has withdrawn her name from consideration and another finalist has been added in her place.

Renae Fry, former city administrator in North Branch and former administrative coordinator in Sauk County, Wis., last week was hired to be Steele County Administrator.

Fry’s withdrawal prompted the Forest Lake City Council to invite Tariq Al-Rifai, city administrator/economic development director for Paynesville, Minn., to a series of interviews on June 20, city officials said.

Al-Rifai previously served as executive director of Quorum Centre for Strategic Studies; head of research and investor relations with the Kuwait Finance House, and director of Index Investment Strategy with S&P Dow Jones Indices.

The five other finalists are: Joe Gaa, Thomas Hutka, Eric Johnson, Pat Oman and Devin Swanberg.

A total of 45 applicants applied for the job. The advertised salary range is $151,580 to $189,475.

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