‘Congress needs to get a spine’

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday rebuked Republican claims that the border can be managed solely through President Joe Biden’s executive action, even while the White House weighs some of those actions behind closed doors.

“We consider options at all times,” Mayorkas said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But administrative action is no substitute for an enduring solution.”

Officials told NBC News in February that Biden is thinking about implementing harsher asylum standards without Congress. The rules would raise the bar for asylum-seekers and deport any migrants who do not meet those elevated standards.

Tightening asylum grants is just one of the policy options that Biden is considering to handle the border unilaterally, officials told NBC News.

But Mayorkas, who was impeached by House Republicans in February, doubled down that executive action is an improper tool for border control since it is subject to judicial challenge and could likely get tied up in the courts.

Instead, he said that Congress needs to pass the bipartisan border proposal that it tanked in February.

Mayorkas’ comments adhere to the White House’s current playbook on the border crisis: Publicly condemn Capitol Hill’s deadlock on border policy while privately, the president weighs executive border actions.

The border issue has gained political grist, especially as anti-Biden ammunition for GOP frontrunner and former President Donald Trump. Both Biden and Trump visited southern border towns on Thursday, each attempting to play offense on the issue.

“Here’s what I would say to Mr. Trump: set a planned policy for this issue, instead of telling members of Congress to block this legislation,” Biden said Thursday in Brownsville, Texas.

Trump reportedly told Senate…