Presented by Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel.

Hey, good morning. I'm Playbook Deputy Editor Zach Stanton. It's Thursday, February 22nd.

And here's what's driving the day. Could a major clampdown on immigration be in store from the Biden administration?

A number of reports over the last 24 hours suggest that the administration is discussing taking major executive

actions that would, among other things, raise the credible fear threshold and deport migrants

more quickly. Credible fear interviews are traditionally the first screening given to people who cross

the border and claim asylum. Other moves under consideration would essentially shut off asylum

as an option to people who cross the border at ports of entry once asylum members cross a certain

threshold. Now, if that sounds like a change for Joe Biden, it is. This has long been a key

conservative immigration plank, and the fact that it's under consideration at the very

least for adoption, and that announcements from the Biden administration could come as soon as

the State of the Union speech in two weeks, show just how much the politics of immigration

and the border have shifted, with Democrats eager to try and neutralize an issue where they see

Republicans enjoying a substantial electoral advantage.

Now, the tricky part, of course, is that any such moves would provoke a big backlash from

progressives and from immigration advocates,

which, when combined with the pre-existing progressive unrest with Biden's support for Israel

among its ongoing war in Gaza, could deepen the whole that President Biden finds himself in with lefties and with young voters.

Now, those woes with young voters at least partly informed another big piece of news

yesterday, which is that the Biden administration emailed 153,000 Americans with federal

student loan debt to let them know that their balance is, collectively $1.2 billion,

had been forgiven, and specifically that they had President

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