Joe Biden issued an executive order on Tuesday to limit asylum at the southern border, his first significant action on an issue that has brought steady criticism of his administration for three and a half years.

Republicans in Congress have dismissed Biden's move - which comes just five months before his rematch with Donald Trump - as a political stunt.

"It’s a little late, you can’t make this cat walk backwards," said Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) who described Biden as "polling right up there with fungal infections."

Biden's order will limit asylum at the border once average daily encounters surpass 2,500 for seven days. The border would remain closed until the number dips below 1,500 per day.

Biden finally does something

Based on current figures, the border could be shut down immediately. Sources told Fox News that daily encounters are above 5,000.

The about face comes after Biden spent most of his presidency refusing to acknowledge a crisis fueled by his liberal immigration agenda, which he pursued vigorously on his first day as president.

In a speech Tuesday, Biden doubled down on blaming Republicans for rejecting an immigration bill that Biden had previously said was necessary to shut down the border.

"Today I'm moving past Republican obstruction and using executive authorities available to me as president to do what I can on my own to address the border," Biden said.

Too late...

Biden will make use of a hardline immigration power that Donald Trump used, 212(f) of the Immigration Nationality Act.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which fought Trump in court on immigration, has already pledged to sue Biden.

In his speech, Biden sought to ward off criticism from the left by distinguishing his action from Trump's hardline approach. 

“I will not use the US military to go into neighborhoods all across the country to pull millions of people out of their homes and away from their families to put (in) detention camps while awaiting deportation, as my predecessor says he will do if he occupies his office again,” Biden said.

Republicans say Biden's flipflop is proof that he always had the power to solve the crisis, and that he is only taking action now because of the impending election.

“He tried to convince us all for all this time that there was no way he could possibly fix the mess,” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said. "Remember that he engineered it.”