Susan Rice leaving as Biden’s top domestic policy adviser

WASHINGTON — Susan Rice, President Biden’s main domestic policy adviser, is leaving the White House after more than two years as the 80-year-old gears up for a re-election campaign — and days after a report indicated she ignored concerns about migrant kids being pressed into work.

Rice, 58, reportedly clashed with other Biden aides over the border crisis that began during the president’s first year in office, advocating for a tougher approach.

Rice’s office occupied the upper floor of the West Wing and she was rarely seen by journalists on the White House grounds — though she was the occasional target of anonymous attacks by insider rivals who disagreed with her on policy.

Current and former White House officials blasted Rice to the left-leaning American Prospect magazine last year and accused her of creating an “abusive” and “dehumanizing” workplace.

Rice at one point “berated” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and accused him of incompetence in processing migrants at the border, according to the May 2022 article.

At a meeting where Biden also expressed his frustration to Becerra, Rice allegedly passed a note to a colleague saying of Becerra: “Don’t help him.”

Investigative reporting later revealed that many unaccompanied minors released at the border were placed by HHS with businessmen who treated them like indentured servants and put them to work rather than into school.

An HHS whistleblower, Linda Brandmiller, told the New York Times last week she was ousted by Becerra’s department after raising concerns internally about child labor.

In the same report, the Times cited two sources as claiming Rice was told in summer 2021 of a memo raising alarms about reports that migrant kids were working alongside their sponsors in likely violation of child labor laws.

The report implied that Rice was more concerned about moving kids out of border facilities than what happened to them once they left.

White House spokespeople denied to the Times that Rice or any other senior officials were told of the labor trafficking fears.

Rice also reportedly opposed Biden’s April 2022 attempt to end the Title 42 border policy that allowed authorities to rapidly deport migrants in the name of public health during the pandemic.

She argued unsuccessfully that lifting the order would be inconsistent with Biden’s messaging that the coronavirus was dangerous during the ongoing wave of Omicron variant cases.

Biden’s statement announcing Rice’s departure said her team had “reversed the harmful immigration policies of the previous Administration, reunified more than 670 children separated from their families, and rebuilt the broken system of care for unaccompanied children, putting their safety and well-being first and foremost.”

The border emergency will enter a new phase May 11 when the Title 42 policy that allowed for rapid expulsions during the COVID-19 pandemic is fully lifted.

Fiscal 2022, which ended Sept. 30, saw a record-breaking 2.4 million arrests of people who illegally crossed the US-Mexico border, and arrests already are up 4% this year.

The longtime Democratic adviser previously worked as President Barack Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations and then as his national security adviser, serving all eight years of his administration.

“As the only person to serve as both National Security Advisor and Domestic Policy Advisor, Susan’s record of public service makes history,” Biden said. “But what sets her apart as a leader and colleague is the seriousness with which she takes her role and the urgency and tenacity she brings, her bias towards action and results, and the integrity, humility and humor with which she does this work.”

Rice’s departure was announced one day before Biden is expected to release a video message announcing that he will seek a second term in 2024.

The 80-year-old president would be 86 at the end of it.