President Biden’s “border tsar” is retiring amid rising migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border that the White House has refused to recognize as a crisis.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Roberta Jacobson will retire later this month, and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Friday that the measure was “consistent with its commitment to serving the first 100 days of the Administration “.
President Biden’s “border tsar” is retiring amid rising migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border the White House has refused to recognize as a crisis.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Roberta Jacobson will retire later this month, and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Friday that the measure was “consistent with its commitment to serving the first 100 days of the Administration “.
Sullivan said Vice President Kamala Harris will continue to lead a “government-wide approach” to the crisis, which seems to contradict the White House’s recent instance that Harris only handles the “deep causes” of migration.
Sullivan said: “President Biden has called on Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the Administration’s work in our efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle, a testament to the importance that this administration attaches to improving conditions in the The vice president oversees a government-wide approach with the support of prominent agency officials throughout the agency, including Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, who were commissioned by the president at the outset. of the administration, rebuilding our immigration system ”.
Jacobson’s retirement was announced less than a month after she admitted that the White House was sending “mixed messages” to Latin American migrants, saying that “sometimes it is difficult to convey as much hope for the future as the danger there. ha ara “.
Jacobson is leaving when the Biden administration is considering sending cash payments to Central Americans to prevent them from making the trek north, and since Harris, approved by Biden to deal with the crisis, has yet to visited neither the border nor Central America. .
Meanwhile, migrant parents who are already in the United States say they are not regularly updated (if any) on the location or welfare of their children in federal custody. According to reports, U.S. taxpayers cost more than $ 60 million a week to care for 16,500 unaccompanied migrant teens and children who are now in federal shelters.
Customs and Border Protection announced this week that the number of encounters of illegal immigrants on the southern border has exploded, rising more than 71% since February.
Robertson’s abrupt departure surprised many in Washington and some Republicans questioned whether he was leaving voluntarily.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who was also director of intelligence last year, tweeted, “They blame and fire a woman for her disastrous border policy.”
Harris ’office has revealed few details about his efforts.
While the White House has clarified that Harris is addressing the “deep causes” of the migrant crisis, his office has disclosed few details about his efforts.
Last week, Harris spoke with the president of Guatemala, but has not spoken with the leaders of El Salvador or Honduras, who together with Guatemala form the so-called “Northern Triangle” from which many migrants travel. Harris spoke Wednesday with the president of Mexico.
“Roberta Jacobson, who admitted that Biden’s immigration policies” may have driven people “to the border, is now leaving the post of border tsar. So who’s in charge?” Tweeted Chad Gilmartin, a communications assistant at the House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California).
“Vice President Harris is absent from the border, while CBP data contradicts WH’s claim that the increase is seasonal.”
Earlier Friday, a California man whose brother was killed in 2018 by an illegal immigrant busted Biden’s immigration policy and said, “We have an absolute crisis.”
“If he walks like a duck, he talks like a duck, he’s not a cow, he’s a duck,” Jody Jones told Fox & Friends.
“So don’t sit there and tell me there’s no crisis on the border, because there is.”
White House officials have repeatedly refused to describe the crisis situation, although press secretary Jen Psaki withdrew during a briefing last month and referred to the “border crisis” while discussed the shipment of COVID-19 vaccines to Mexico.
When a reporter noticed his use of the word, Psaki quickly corrected himself and said, “Challenges at the border.”