President Biden’s border czar said the White House’s message that migrants should not travel to the U.S.-Mexico border is not being heard in Central America because smugglers are drowning them out.
“The smugglers are agile and quick and word of mouth gets through, and they are exploiting people’s hope and desperation,” White House Coordinator for the Southern Border Roberta Jacobson told CNN Tuesday morning.
“Our own message is getting out less than smugglers’. We always know that, but we are doing everything we can, and that includes Spanish language radio, social media, making sure that we convey the message that the border is not open, that the majority of people will be returned, and that it is not ever a good idea to come in this irregular fashion. But the smugglers’ message is very pervasive. They prey on people, and they prey on their hope, and they tell them things that simply aren’t true.”
Rep. Henry Cuellar, a senior Democrat from a border district in Texas, said migrants he spoke with on the border last week said that they never heard the Biden administration’s message not to travel to the United States. Instead, the group of approximately 20 migrants said they heard from friends and neighbors and said news on the television that prompted them to make the journey through Mexico to the U.S.
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Biden officials expect more unaccompanied children to cross the southern border this year than any year on record, surpassing numbers seen during surges in 2014 and 2019. The numbers have increased since Biden took office in January and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas ordered border officials to stop turning away children who showed up without a parent.
Host John Berman asked Jacobson why the White House did not do more to get ready for a potential influx of children before it did a 180-degree turn from the Trump administration’s approach. Jacobson said the government immediately asked agencies for help to find additional facilities to hold children so that they could be transferred from Border Patrol stations to safer buildings.
The administration’s short-term plan to prevent children from traveling to the border includes talks with Guatemalan, Honduran, Mexican, and Salvadoran leaders, as well as sending aid to areas hit by recent natural disasters.
Amb. Roberta Jacobson, White House coordinator for the southern border, says the Biden administration is fighting back against messaging along the border.
“The smuggler’s message is very pervasive… they prey on [people’s] hope and they tell them things that simply aren’t true.” pic.twitter.com/6s3ayP5mem
— New Day (@NewDay) March 16, 2021
In a statement issued Tuesday morning, Mayorkas made no indication that parents should stop sending single children to the U.S. but welcomed the several thousand arriving weekly.
“I came to this country as an infant, brought by parents who understood the hope and promise of America. Today, young children are arriving at our border with that same hope. We can do this,” said Mayorkas.
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Unaccompanied children are taken into federal custody by Border Patrol agents then transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services until the child can be placed with an adult sponsor in the U.S., which typically takes a month. Children will go through legal proceedings where they can make a claim seeking permanent refuge here, but the court process takes years to complete.
