(TargetLiberty.org) – Susan Rice, the head of the Domestic Policy Council and Biden’s adviser announced on Monday that she would be stepping down from the post that she has held since the start of the Biden administration. Her exit has brought relief to immigration advocates, who are hoping that with her departure there is going to be a change to how the border crisis is handled.
As part of her duties, Rice often gave her input on immigration matters. Her influence had caused many lawmakers and immigration groups displeasure, as Rice was widely considered to be behind some of the Biden administration’s more hardline immigration policies, including the continuation of many Trump-era deterrent policies at the border.
Nayna Gupta, associate director of policy at the National Immigrant Justice Center, claimed that Rice’s departure marks a “critical moment of transition for the administration.” She added that this will give the president the chance to reevaluate their approach to migration and to potentially “follow through on a lot of broken promises related to managing the border humanely.” She further claimed that it would provide him with the space to consider how the administration could “respond to a migration challenge with a humanitarian lens rather than a hardline, hawkish punitive response,” which appears to be the approach that Rice had supported until now.
Rice was reportedly often behind the different proposals to address migration with punitive measures at the U.S.-Mexico border, however, the White House had been careful to protect her from facing too much public scrutiny. Still, in March, Sen. Bob Menéndez (D-N.J.) publicly expressed his suspicions about Rice’s involvement in the proposed plan to reinstate family detention.
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