If you worked for Joe Biden and were in charge of the Southern border with Mexico would you want to take the fall for his failures?
His Southern Border coordinator Roberta Jacobson certainly does not and she is getting out while the getting is good, Fox News reported.
The former ambassador to Mexico was picked to handle the Southern border as members of Congress pressured the Biden administration to do something to stop what many have called a crisis.
But the Biden administration said that her leaving her post was expected.
“Consistent with her commitment to serve in the administration’s first 100 days, Ambassador Jacobson will retire from her role as Coordinator at the end of this month,” Jake Sullivan, Biden’s National Security Advisor said.
Sullivan said of Jacobson that “there was no person better to usher in a more safe, secure and just approach to our southern border.”
Sullivan said that Jacobson leaves the administration “having shaped our relationship with Mexico as an equal partner, having launched our renewed efforts with the Northern Triangle nations of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, and having underscored this administration’s commitment to re-energizing the U.S. immigration system.”
Sullivan praised Jacobson’s work in shaping the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico and renewed efforts to cooperate with Northern Triangle nations of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, home to many migrant children making the dangerous passage to the U.S.
More than 16,000 unaccompanied migrant children are in the care of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and another 4,000 in the care of Customs and Border Protection, according to official figures. CBP announced on Thursday that there have been 172,000 migrant encounters in March, of which nearly 19,000 involved unaccompanied children.
The administration has blamed Trump’s dismantling of asylum systems for the “challenge” it faces at the border while Republicans have cited Biden’s immigration policies and messaging.
Jacobson had only praise for Biden in a statement made to The New York Times as she prepares to depart the administration.
“They continue to drive toward the architecture that the president has laid out: an immigration system that is humane, orderly and safe,” she said to The Times. “I leave optimistically. The policy direction is so clearly right for our country.”
She said that Biden’s decision to place Kamala Harris in charge of the situation at the border was not a factor in her decision to leave the administration.
“I briefed and worked in support of the vice president’s leadership on this issue,” she said. “Nobody could be more delighted to see the vice president take on that role. It didn’t have anything to do with my decision.”
But two weeks ago Jacobson spoke with The Times about plans she had to travel to Central America to work with government officials to slow the migration to the United States.
And last month she went to Mexico and spoke to officials there about how to slow illegal immigration and expand shelter space for migrants.
“I would say that we’re — we’re having the beginnings of those conversations,” the outgoing border chief said. “But right now, we’re focused more on how we can work with Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries.”
Jacobson said that she is confident that the administration will continue to work with Mexican and other Central American leaders to stem the tide of migration into the United States.
“They know it is something that can’t happen overnight,” she said of those she worked with in the Biden administration, and stressed that leaders in the other Central American nations were also motivated to find a solution.
“Diplomacy is a conversation,” she said. “It’s not a monologue.”