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A senior adviser to President Biden on Wednesday publicly warned migrants not to make a trip to the U.S. southern border to enter the country “in an irregular fashion” as she detailed several changes in immigration policy, including the restart of a program to reunite children from Central America with parents who are already legally in the United States.

“I want to be clear, neither this announcement nor any of the other measures suggest that anyone, especially children and families with young children, should make the dangerous trip to trying to enter the U.S. in an irregular fashion. The border is not open,” Roberta Jacobson, a national security adviser focused on the border, said during a White House briefing. She delivered a similar message in Spanish.

Her comments came as Republicans have accused Biden administration officials of not taking a firm-enough stand against illegal immigration and suggested their rhetoric has contributed to a surge in families and unaccompanied minors seeking to cross the border illegally.

Jacobson said the United States is restarting the Central American Minors program, which Biden, as vice president, championed during the Obama administration. The program seeks to reunite qualified children from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras with parents who are lawfully present in the United States.

“This program was ended abruptly by the previous administration, leaving around 3,000 children already approved for travel stranded,” Jacobson said.

She said the Biden administration is also seeking $4 billion over four years from Congress “to address the root causes of migration, including corruption, violence and economic devastation.”

“Only by addressing those root causes can we break the cycle of desperation and provide hope for families who clearly would prefer to stay in their countries and provide a better future for their children,” Jacobson said.

As other Biden officials have done, she stressed the shortcomings of an immigration system inherited from the Trump administration.

“We can’t just undo four years of the previous administration’s actions overnight,” Jacobson said. “Those actions didn’t just neglect our immigration system. They intentionally made it worse. When you add a pandemic to that, it’s clear it will take significant time to overcome.”