The White House has invited border city mayors and Democratic lawmakers to accompany President Joe Biden on Tuesday when he announces an executive action to limit asylum — and tries to change the political narrative around immigration.

The invitations are the latest attempt by the administration to project political strength — and governing consensus — on an issue that polls show have created a liability for Biden.

Biden plans to sign an order that will restrict the ability of migrants to seek asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border when the number of people attempting to cross reaches a certain threshold — a level that has been repeatedly hit since he took office.

Under the order, the U.S. would halt new asylum requests if the number of people trying to enter the country between the ports of entry reaches a daily average of 2,500 over a week, according to three people familiar with the administration’s plans who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details ahead of the announcement. Details of the order are still fluid but it’s expected to go into effect Wednesday. It would include a provision to allow asylum petitions to resume when crossings fall back to a daily average of 1,500, the people said.

Asylum claims will still be processed at ports of entry under the order, and there will be exceptions. The Biden administration is currently processing roughly 1,500 migrants a day, mostly those who have an appointment via a phone app set up by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The new order will not apply to unaccompanied minors.

The executive action is similar to a provision in the bipartisan border bill that failed in Congress at the behest of Donald Trump, who did not want Biden to score a political victory — potentially blunting Republican criticism that the president has failed to secure the border amid a sharp increase in the number of people seeking asylum.

The announcement of the new policy, which could help vulnerable down-ballot candidates as well as Biden, comes just weeks before the president and Trump are scheduled to hold their first debate.

“I’m excited to see what the president’s executive order contains. This is a very important issue that people are concerned about and Congress’ failure to act has forced the president to take executive action,” Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) said in an interview. “The most effective elected official or politician is the one who says what the people are thinking already. And the people are concerned about the border. It’s not a Republican issue. It’s an American issue.”

Ramiro Garza, Jr. mayor Edinburg, Texas and the chair of the South Texas Alliance of Cities, will also be at Tuesday’s event — one of a number of local officials who have worked with the administration to develop a response to the increase in migrants.

“I’m sure there are going to be different opinions about this. But at least from my standpoint, putting this back into the conversation — for us to really look at this and do something about it — I see it as a positive effort because otherwise, at this point, because of an election year, I just don’t see any action by Congress,” he said.

In recent months, the president and his senior aides have become increasingly concerned about the high number of border crossings, worries that have intensified with the political pressure of an election year. After the failed border bill, aides landed on a policy that will drastically shape the asylum system, as well as the Democratic party’s ideology on an issue that has challenged the last several administrations.

The decision to do so resembled a reversal by the president. Having stepped into the White House vowing to fix America’s broken immigration system after four years of Trump, he has settled on an approach likely to draw criticism from progressives and immigration advocates.

“This should definitely not be the new Democratic position when it comes to border and immigration. From what we’ve heard, it’s not just paralleling some of the elements of the bill but it’s paralleling some of the elements of what the Trump administration tried to do unsuccessfully,” said Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)

But White House officials believe voters will reward the president for cracking down on the border. They view the February special election of Suozzi, who ran on strengthening border security, as further evidence that the president’s policy and rhetorical shift will pay electoral benefits. At least a dozen lawmakers will be at the White House on Tuesday, including Suozzi, who along with other Democrats have called on the president to use this authority to clamp down on the border.

“This step from the Biden Administration will help us start to get the situation at the border under control, but Congress must take action on a more permanent fix,” said Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), who led a letterlast month with other lawmakers asking for an executive order. “I welcome any additional action from the president on this issue in the meantime.”

Even the metric the administration settled on did not disguise Biden officials’ efforts to address GOP criticism. Administration officials decided on a figure more stringent than the average of 4,000 daily crossings used in the bipartisan border deal in an effort to preempt Republicans accusing Biden of encouraging thousands of migrants to approach the border before it was shut down.

While a handful of Democrats, many of them in politically vulnerable seats, have asked the administration to take action, progressives and immigration advocates have criticized any limits on asylum, which is a safeguard to vulnerable people guaranteed under U.S. law.

“The Biden administration is trying to thread the needle with meeting the political moment of what Americans are saying they want — greater order at the border — while at the same time maintaining a fair process at the border. And they’re not going to be able to do a perfect job of that right now. It’s likely that this new process is going to turn away asylum seekers and deny them a fair opportunity to seek asylum,” said Greg Chen, senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Immigration policy experts warn that the policy change will do little to resolve the crisis at the border. Even with the administration’s efforts to curtail asylum seekers during spikes in crossings, smugglers and traffickers will continue to target nationalities — like Cubans, Venezuelans and Colombians — that can’t be easily removed to countries that haven’t consistently accepted deportation flights from the U.S. or Mexico. They also warn that triggered border shutdowns tied to a specific number of illegal crossings will lead to more erratic surges at the border in isolated areas, upending Border Patrol’s security posture.

There also remain questions about the policy’s fate. Many immigration policy experts expect the action to be stalled by legal challenges, potentially making its way to the Supreme Court. At that point, the administration would be able to show Biden exhausted his options, while once again pointing the finger at Congress.

“Assuming it’ll get enjoined in the courts, they’ll just go back to Congress and say, ‘look we tried to do this administratively, and it didn’t work,’” said one person familiar with the administration’s planning.

Daniella Diaz and Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.