[Washington Examiner] The anti-illegal immigration ads federal agencies air in Central American countries are useless, former senior Trump officials say, undercutting one of the Biden administration's defenses of its border policies.Some liberal immigrant groups also said the ads do not stop migrants from coming to the United States and added that there is no research to support their efficacy.
Political pressure from the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border pushed President Joe Biden to launch the ad campaign in January, with tens of thousands of radio ads in Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras in Spanish, Portuguese, and six indigenous languages. The ads played on 33 radio stations, reaching an estimated 15 million individuals, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a press briefing last week.
Psaki presented the ads as a meaningful example of actions taken by the Biden administration to help stem the tide of illegal migrants. Republicans have accused the Biden administration of an "open borders agenda" and a "public health crisis."
Trump administration officials and some immigrant advocacy groups say the ads are not effective at actually reducing the flow of migrants, who are facing extreme crowding in government facilities and are straining resources at border towns at the same time.
The State Department, which is placing most of these ads in conjunction with embassies, said that "data shows mobile is the dominant source of media consumption in the region," and digital ads placed on Facebook and Instagram have reached more than 26 million people since Inauguration Day.