President BidenBorder Patrol chief Chris Magnus resigned Saturday, bowing to pressure from his superiors while exposing chaos behind the scenes at Homeland Security.
Mr. Magnus, who has been Customs and Border Protection commissioner for less than a year, has resisted attempts by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this week to force him out of office. But on Saturday he relented.
“I am tendering my resignation with immediate effect, but I wish you and your administration all the best going forward. Thank you again for this great opportunity,” said Mr. Magnus. Biden in a resignation letter released by the White House.
CBP, part of Homeland Security, controls the country’s borders.
Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment on the situation on Friday, but Mr. Magnus told The Los Angeles Times that Mr. Mayorkas said he had to resign or face being fired. Mr. Magnus said he would not resign.
Some news reports said that Mr. Magnus had lost access to the commissioner’s social media accounts and that his subordinates had been ordered to report to the deputy secretary of homeland security in an attempt to remove Mr. Magnus.
He said he thought he was doing his job. Biden asked him in the direction he hosted by CBP.
This direction was the worst in the history of the border, with more illegal immigrants detected and more fentanyl and terrorism suspects detected than ever before.
Mr. Magnus, who was the police chief in Tucson, Arizona, took over at CBP when the numbers were already bad. They began to deteriorate early in the Biden administration.
But in 11 months on the job, Mr Magnus has not made much progress in reducing the numbers.
Border Patrol agents and Republicans on Capitol Hill blame Mr. Mayorkas — indeed, if the GOP takes control of the House, there will likely be an effort to impeach the secretary.
However, Mr Mayorkas appeared to see Mr Magnus as an obstacle to better border security.
Mr. Mayorkas is scheduled to appear on Capitol Hill to testify next week, and a border situation is likely to arise.
This was reported by the press secretary of the White House, Karin Jean-Pierre. Biden accepted Mr. Magnus’s resignation and “appreciates” his long career in law enforcement.
There was no mention of a replacement.
Homeland Security has three immigration agencies: CBP, which controls borders and points of entry; US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which handles detention, deportation, and domestic law enforcement; and USCIS, which handles legal immigration.
Attracting people to agency heads has been difficult given the heated immigration politics on Capitol Hill.
ICE has been without a confirmed director for nearly six years, dating back to the end of the Obama administration. A few picks for President Trump and the President Biden failed to win Senate confirmation.
The last two and a half years of the Trump administration, and for most of Bidenthe first year.
