Roberta Jacobson, the former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, said President Donald Trump’s handling the migrant crisis is a “failure.”
Jacobson, who was appointed to the post by President Barack Obama, in June 2016, made her comments in a column she co-wrote for The New York Times with Dan Restrepo, a former special assistant for Western Hemisphere affairs for Obama.
“Trying to stop immigrants as the Trump administration is doing — unilaterally, at the border and with tear gas and troops — is a sign of only one thing: failure,” they wrote.
“In fact, the administration’s response to the migrant caravan from Central America that recently arrived at the border with Mexico highlights much of what is wrong with American politics and immigration policy today.”
They called for a more practical solution to the situation at the border.
“This means that the United States must stay true to its national interests, history, values and legal obligations in the ways it handles people seeking asylum," they added. "That does not mean letting in every petitioner. Economic migrants do not qualify for asylum; they should understand that, for them, the perilous journey north will ultimately be a fruitless one.
“But being scrupulously selective about asylum requests does not mean we should be firing tear gas at families at the border, wastefully deploying troops to string concertina wire as cameras roll, ignoring our historical role as a haven for the persecuted or manufacturing a crisis for political purposes.”
They said the U.S. must increase its capacity to adjudicate asylum claims while expanding its refugee programs in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
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