Today’s Morning Jolt notes that Susan Rice, President Biden’s top domestic security advisor, appears to have had some awareness of how the administration’s policy towards unaccompanied children was encouraging parents to send their children and teenagers north, overwhelming the limited resources at the border.
In 2021, as images of children sleeping under foil blankets in overflow centers dominated the news, Susan E. Rice, the White House’s head of domestic policy, told staff members she was frustrated with the situation, according to five people who worked with her. Ms. Rice vented in a note she scribbled on a memo detailing the position of advocates, who believed a pandemic-era border closure was compelling parents to send unaccompanied children, sometimes called U.C.s.
“This is BS,” Ms. Rice wrote, according to a copy of the memo reviewed by The Times. “What is leading to ‘voluntary’ separation is our generosity to UCs!”
In a statement, Ms. Patterson, the White House spokeswoman, said that any suggestion that Ms. Rice felt constrained by the demands of the law was false and that she was “proud to be doing the right thing and treating children with dignity and respect.”
Last week the New York Times reported that “thousands of children have ended up in punishing jobs across the country — working overnight in slaughterhouses, replacing roofs, operating machinery in factories — all in violation of child labor laws… all along, there were signs of the explosive growth of this labor force and warnings that the Biden administration ignored or missed, The Times has found.”
This morning, President Biden announced that Susan Rice would be moving on from the administration next month. The first news report about Rice’s departure, from NBC News, was quick to emphasize that Rice’s departure had nothing to do with any problems with the administration’s immigration policies:
The timing of Rice’s departure also coincides with a growing controversy over the White House’s handling of migrant children who arrive unaccompanied at the southern border amid questions about whether the White House, including Rice, ignored warnings that sponsors of migrant children were making them work grueling jobs in violation of child labor laws. The White House has said that is not the case. A senior administration official said Rice is proud of her work on the border.
Administration officials said the controversy has nothing to do with Rice’s decision to leave, which they said was already in the works. It’s common for White House staffers to burn out after two years. But with Biden, Rice had largely kept a lower profile compared to her time as national security advisor in the Obama years. Perhaps a New York Times report showcasing her recognition of the perverse incentives of the administration’s immigration policy represented a convenient cue to head for the exit.