Roberta Jacobson, Biden's Border Czar, Steps Down Amid Migrant Crisis
After only 100 days on the job, Roberta Jacobson, a top official overseeing southern border issues, is stepping down at the end of the month, the White House confirmed on Friday.
Roberta Jacobson, a career diplomat and a highly regarded former U.S. ambassador to Mexico that President Joe Biden chose as his "border czar," has been grappling with large increases of migrants attempting to cross into the U.S.
According to Los Angeles Times, she said that she knows that she can leave once the Biden administration has built up teams working on the immigration issue.
Jacobson added that she had always intended to serve as the National Security Council's coordinator for the U.S. southern border. But once the Biden administration has designated teams to work on the immigration issue, she believed that she could already leave her post.
The President recently appointed vice President Kamala Harris to oversee diplomacy with countries like Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Even the U.S. Agency for International Development is setting up a special task force for Central America, people familiar with the matter said.
Roberta Jacobson told The Los Angeles Times on Friday that she never intended to return to the government after she retired in May 2018 due to some conflicts with former President Donald Trump.
However, she mentioned that she received a call that she cannot refuse. Roberta Jacobson also shared that she agreed to be the "border czar" shortly after Biden was inaugurated.
Noting that her official departure would be at the end of April, she said, "it was always going to be 100 days."
Biden's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, said that Roberta Jacobson would step down after helping the country to introduce a more safe and secure approach to the southern border. Sullivan noted that Harris would pick up some of Roberta Jacobson's portfolio.
One specialist in the region, who is also close to the Biden administration, noted that the border czar appointment was always going to be temporary, but the announcement's timing sends a bad message.
Roberta Jacobson's resignation follows the surge of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. It gives political ammunition to Republicans and other Biden critics to blame the President for what they consider a crisis.
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Border Crisis
The steady increase in the migrant population at the border started last year, but it escalated during Biden's first months in office.
Biden has vowed to overturn some of Trump's immigration policies. And it seems that his administration is having a hard time striking a balance between the President's promises and the country's security,
ABC News reported that the number of migrants reaching the border surges to the highest in 20 years. More than 172,000 migrants tried to cross the southwest border in March, with record numbers of unaccompanied minors among them.
Officials at the southern border recorded close to 19,000 unaccompanied minors last month. The said number is the largest monthly number ever recorded by U.S. officials. It was nearly 50 percent higher than the previous record-high of more than 11,000 in May 2019, Fox News reported.
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