| That was fast. |
[SDUT] Roberta Jacobson, a former ambassador to Mexico and career State Department official, will leave at the end of AprilQuick determination of incompetence and/or scapegoating
The top White House official leading efforts to address the migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border will leave her post at the end of April, the White House announced Friday.
Roberta Jacobson, a former ambassador to Mexico and career State Department official, had been tasked with coordinating the Biden administration’s efforts on several fronts. Vice President Kamala Harris had recently been assigned the part of Jacobson’s portfolio involving diplomatic outreach to the Central American nations that are home to most of the migrants.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement that Jacobson had planned to stay only for the administration’s first 100 days. Her thanked her for "an invaluable contribution to the Biden-Harris Administration and to the United States."
Sullivan credited her with "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."
Jacobson spoke to reporters at the White House last month and acknowledged the significant challenge of addressing a flow of families and unaccompanied children.
"President Biden has made clear from day one that he wants to change our immigration system," she said then. "Doing so means truly building back better, because we can’t just undo four years of the previous administration’s actions overnight.
"Those actions didn’t just neglect our immigration system; they intentionally made it worse. When you add a pandemic to that, it’s clear it will take significant time to overcome. We must build a better immigration system that reflects our values as Americans, enforces our laws, safeguards public health, and moves away from cycles of irregular migration."