White House shakes up its immigration team

The White House is revamping its roster of immigration advisers, adding top border enforcement policy leaders and development experts to strengthen the team.

Blas Nuñez-Neto came to the White House from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). At the department, he served as assistant secretary for border and immigration policy and was the lead negotiator on the failed bipartisan Senate agreement on immigration.

Marcela Escobari has resigned from her position at USAID as Director of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The two hires reflect the Biden administration’s approach to immigration generally. The administration has emphasized investing heavily in development across Latin America in hopes of restricting immigration at borders while opening legal routes and curbing migration flows.

Nuñez-Neto, who immigrated to the United States from Argentina as a child, has been a central figure in shaping what he sees as a compromise on immigration.

His positions on the enforcement side of immigration and border protection have received little praise from immigration advocates. Some of the policies he has led have been the focus of tensions between immigrant advocates and the Biden administration.

He helped shape the Biden administration’s response to the lifting of Title 42, imposing asylum conditions similar to those under former President Trump, but with the exception of a program that allows temporary entry for immigrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Haiti. It was a set. They could secure a US-based financial sponsor.

He also helped negotiate the resumption of deportation flights to Venezuela.

As part of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ team during the Senate border negotiations, he provided the technical basis for negotiators to crack down on asylum rights.

“We are thrilled that DHS Assistant Secretary Blas Nuñez Neto will join the White House and continue his work to realize the administration’s vision across border security and immigration,” White House Press Secretary Angelo Fernández Hernández said in a statement. I look forward to it.”

“The administration will continue to work to fix our broken immigration system and pass a historic bipartisan border security agreement that Congressional Republicans rejected for partisan political reasons.”

At DHS, Mr. Nuñez-Neto played a key role in working on immigration policy at home and abroad, becoming a regular face in Congress and in international negotiations.

“Blas Nuñez-Neto is an extremely talented and dedicated colleague. With his outstanding knowledge of immigration policy and deep expertise in foreign relations, he is able to address some of the most complex issues we face. “He is deeply respected and loved, and we will miss him here at DHS, but in his well-deserved new role in the White House,” Mayorkas said in a statement. We look forward to working closely together.”

Although Mr. Escobari’s role in the Biden administration has been less public than Mr. Nuñez-Neto, the Bolivian-born development expert has built a rich collection of writings on domestic and international issues.

At USAID, he ran the agency’s Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, a position he held under President Barack Obama in 2016.

The agency said her portfolio would “spearhead USAID’s efforts to advance a collaborative, regional response to seven million historically displaced people” across the region, and in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. It said it was battling an “economic contraction” that was being felt deeply across Latin America.

“We often draw lines between so-called developed and developing countries, between the Global North and the Global South…but the truth is that when it comes to the devastating effects of poverty, there is no clear line. No,” Escobari wrote in testimony before a foreign Senate. The relevant committees are seeking approval for her post in 2021.

“The need for inclusive and sustainable growth is as real in Appalachia as it is in Antigua.”

Escobari replaces National Security Council immigration adviser Katie Tobin, who announced her resignation from the administration in January.

During his two stints at USAID (during the Trump administration), Mr. Escolari was a fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he published extensive research on modernizing the U.S. workforce.

At USAID, Escobari faced internal challenges, including responding to the 2021 emergency. Report of the Office of the Inspector General It was found that the agency bowed to undue political pressure from the Trump administration in its efforts to provide humanitarian aid to Venezuela.

USAID also faced external headwinds in the Americas, including from U.S. allies such as Mexico, where President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office. The agency was heavily criticized For “funding an organization that openly opposes the legitimate and legitimate government that I represent,” referring to USAID’s funding of anti-corruption civil society organizations.

In his new role, Mr. Escobari will inevitably interact with Mr. López Obrador’s government and policy-making, as Mexico’s president is a central figure on migration in the region.

While the Biden administration has openly embraced López Obrador’s rhetoric prioritizing a humanitarian approach when it comes to development, Escobari’s area of ​​expertise, the U.S. I have valued his cooperation.