Marcela Escobari
Coordinator, Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection; Special Assistant to the President, The White House
Marcela Escobari is coordinator for the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection and a special assistant to President Biden. She leads efforts to promote safe, orderly and humane migration and advance a collaborative, regional response to the displacement of over 7 million people across Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to this, Escobari was assistant administrator for USAID’s Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean from 2021 to 2024, a position she also held from 2016 to 2017. Previously, Escobari was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and executive director of Harvard University’s Center for International Development. Her honors include Freedom House’s 2024 Mark Palmer Prize for diplomats and civil servants whose work has advanced democracy and human rights
Previously
America’s southern border is a flashpoint for contentious political and cultural disagreements, as well as the site of a growing humanitarian crisis that existing laws, polici...