President Joe Biden’s “border czar” will leave the White House, as the administration continues struggling to handle the migration crisis on the Southern border.
Former U.S. ambassador to Mexico Roberta S. Jacobson, who was appointed by Biden to lead the diplomatic effort in Central America, will leave her position at the end of April, she revealed to the New York Times.
News of Jacobson’s resignation broke after Biden appointed Vice President Kamala Harris as the point person for the border crisis, particularly on diplomatic negotiations with Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
Jacobson told the Times she was not resigning because of Harris’s role, stressing she was only expected to serve in her position for 100 days.
“Nobody could be more delighted to see the vice president take on that role,” she told the Times. “It didn’t have anything to do with my decision.”
Jacobson had only one public speaking appearance in the White House, joining a press briefing with reporters in March to discuss the border crisis.
During the briefing, she partially attributed the surge of migrants to the election of President Biden and his policies.
“Surges tend to respond to hope, and there was a significant hope for a more humane policy after four years of, you know, pent-up demand,” she said.
She also mistakenly said in Spanish the “border was not closed” before correcting herself during the briefing.
Jacobson previously resigned as an ambassador in 2018 in protest of former President Donald Trump’s border policies before she was appointed to the Biden administration.