Border Security Director in Biden's White House Will Come from the UN
Personnel is policy
By Nayla Rush on January 21, 2021
In a new Backgrounder, I explain some ways that the Biden administration might expand immigration from Central America without the politically awkward TV images of caravans of illegal immigrants being waved across the border. The revival and expansion of approaches such as the Central American Minors (CAM) program and the Protection Transfer Arrangement (PTA) is made more likely by the recent announcement that Katie Tobin, "an expert on asylum seekers and refugees", will be joining Biden's National Security Council as "senior director for transborder security".
Tobin, who is currently based in Washington as the "external relations officer" for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), served as the UN refugee agency's "head of office" in the Central American nation of Belize from 2015 to 2016. In 2016, she spoke to Channel 5 Belize about PTA:
It is something that UNHCR proposed to the government of Belize [Costa Rica, not Belize, finally agreed to it]. It's a new initiative, part of UNHCR regional strategy, something we're really excited about, it's an innovative mechanism that will hopefully save lives for some of the most vulnerable people in the Northern Triangle, people that are facing severe persecutions, their lives are at risk but they're not able to access protection in their country, for instance in El Salvador, Honduras … . And so we're looking to be able to transfer them out of their country for temporary stay in Belize while they will be processed for resettlement in a third country, countries like the United States and potentially Canada. So, UNHCR is really excited about this program because like I said we think it'll save lives.
https://cis.org/Rush/Border-Security-Director-Bidens-White-House-Will-Come-UN
