WASHINGTON — The commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection, the federal agency responsible for border security, is refusing to quit his job after a request from the Biden administration, a Department of Homeland Security official told NBC News.
As head of the Dutch DPA, Chris Magnus62, oversees more than 60,000 employees whose missions focus on counter-terrorism, border security and trade enforcement.
The Los Angeles Times was the first to break the news that Magnus had been asked to resign.
Magnus has held the role since December 2021 after being narrowly confirmed by the Senate in a majority of 50-47 votes, mostly party lines. He previously served as chief of police in Tucson, Arizona, from 2016 to 2020, and resigned after a civilian died while in custody. Magnus has also served as a police chief in Richmond, California, and in Fargo, ND. Early in his law enforcement career, he also spent 15 years as a police officer in Lansing, Michigan.
The clash between the Biden and Magnus administration comes after a… political report published in October, five current administration officials said he was “portrayed as disengaged from his job, saying he often does not attend White House meetings about the situation at the border, insults other agencies with colleagues and superiors, and has failed to establish relationships.” within CBP and across other agencies to deal with the influx of migrants at the border.” NBC News has not confirmed the report.
Biden and Congressional Democrats have been inundated with criticism from Republicans who tried to make the influx of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border during the midterm elections a major problem.
Magnus accused Republican governors in September of attracting more migrants to the US by promising them free bus rides north to places like New York, Washington, DC and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. He said in an interview that in some cases the governors of Texas, Arizona and Florida are “lying” to migrants about the opportunities that might await them in those cities and that it “lures” others to come to the US.
In mid-September, NBC News reported that there was friction between Biden’s White House and senior DHS officials over how to handle immigration as the number of undocumented migrants crossing the southern border continued to rise and Republican governors sent migrants to more Democratic-led areas. towns.
