President Biden’s border czar is urging migrants not to come across the border, as she and her administration colleagues try to clean up their messy immigration messaging.
“The border is not open,” Roberta Jacobson, a National Security Council member in charge of southern border affairs, said Wednesday at the White House, repeating the line in Spanish.
Jacobson briefed reporters on the Biden administration’s immigration strategy after four years of former President Donald Trump’s tougher approach. Biden, for instance, has ended Trump’s so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy, processing 1,400 migrants under that scheme, she said.
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Biden has also shut down the migrant camp in Matamoros, Mexico, Jacobson added. He has restarted the Central American Minors Program as well, which permits migrant parents in the United States to apply for refugee or parole status for their children if they are from the Northern Triangle. Roughly 3,000 children had been approved for travel before Trump scrapped the initiative.
“What we’re doing right now is making a difference in the home countries, beginning to work with the home countries. We couldn’t do that until Jan. 20,” she said, referring to high-level meetings with the Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras governments.
A $4 billion allocation for Central America would be part of a foreign assistance package request, according to Jacobson, but it wouldn’t be for “handing over blank checks.”
Biden is being criticized for his immigration stance as the number of migrants arriving at the border surges. The influx is putting pressure on resources as officials prioritize the processing of children amid the coronavirus pandemic and as the administration works to overhaul policy and procedures. But Jacobson declined to describe the situation as a “crisis.”
“We’ve seen surges before. Surges tend to respond to hope,” she said, refusing to take responsibility on behalf of the president.
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Biden administration messaging on immigration has been muddled, and Republicans have lambasted it.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said from the White House briefing podium just this month, “We are not saying don’t come. We are saying don’t come now.” However, White House press secretary Jen Psaki has reiterated a warning to migrants against making the “dangerous trip” to the border.
On Wednesday, Jacobson acknowledged the messaging challenges, which have been exacerbated by migrant smugglers.
