Special Assistant to the President and Coordinator for the Southern Border, Ambassador Roberta Jacobson, speaks at a press conference at the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC on March 10, 2021.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
President Joe Biden’s coordinator for the southern border Roberta Jacobson will leave her post at the end of April, the White House announced on Friday.
“In keeping with her early pledge to serve in the first 100 days of government, Ambassador Jacobson will retire from her role as coordinator at the end of this month,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement.
Jacobson’s departure comes as the Biden administration works to address an increase in migrants detained at the US-Mexico border, including a record number of unaccompanied children crossing the border in March – more than 60% higher than the previous record in 2019.
Many migrants come from Central America, where natural disasters, food insecurity and violence are among the many complex reasons that prompt them to seek refuge in the US.
Biden appointed Vice President Kamala Harris on March 24 to lead diplomatic efforts with Mexico and the Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
“They keep driving in the direction of the architecture that the president has put forward: an immigration system that is humane, orderly and safe,” Jacobson, a former ambassador to Mexico, told The New York Times, who first reported her planned departure . “I am leaving optimistic. The policy direction is so clearly good for our country.”
Jacobson traveled to Mexico in March to meet with government officials on migration and represent the White House at press conferences.