Biden's double trouble on immigration

Driving the news: Biden announced a sweeping new program Tuesday, that would make getting green cards easier for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who have been in the U.S. for years and are legally married to or the children of U.S. citizens.

• The same afternoon, Trump-allied America First Legal pledged legal action, with the group's president and long-time Trump advisor Stephen Miller decrying the move as "one of the largest executive amnesties in American history."
• While Republicans slammed Biden for providing "amnesty" to undocumented immigrants, immigrants-rights groups and Democratic lawmakers cheered the action.
• Advocates posted selfies on X and top Democrats flanked Biden during the White House event announcing the new program on the 12th anniversary of DACA.

The other side: It's a very different vibe from exactly two weeks earlier when Biden announced drastic asylum restrictions at the border through executive order.

• That time, the ACLU was quick to promise litigation — which they have followed through on, joined by other immigration advocacy groups.

• Advocates were furious, and vulnerable Senate Democrats declined invites to join Biden at the White House to announce the move.
• Meanwhile, Republicans who had called for that kind of executive action for months, resorted to arguments of "too little, too late."

The intrigue: Migrant crossings have declined since the new restrictions were put into place.

• There were just around 2,000 illegal border crossings on Monday, according to internal government statistics obtained by Axios.
• Border trends can change quickly, and it's too soon to tell if the trend will stay. The last month that had a daily average of illegal border crossings below 2,500 was January 2021.