President Biden has been trying to make the situation on the border look good since he took office. He initially tried stopping the wall that began under President Trump, only to find out it works much better than having an open border, and then had to go back to it.
He then tried making asylum programs for illegals easier to get, only to have that shut down. Since then, he has done nothing but fails at border security.
With the problems mounting, Biden needed to pick a scapegoat, and that was US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commissioner Chris Magnus. Magnus was appointed to the role in December 2021 and turned in his resignation on November 12th, something Biden immediately accepted.
Reportedly Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas requested he resign, or else he would simply be fired from his position.
Speaking with the LA Times on the 11th, Magnus made it clear he had no plans to leave his post, and he believed he was doing good in his position. In his letter less than 24 hours later, he gave the administration the best going forward.
This change comes hot on the heels of an article by Politico, which painted Magnus as someone who was not truly connected to the mission and described him as falling asleep during meetings.
With the recent spike in illegal immigrants making it across the border, with 2.4 million crossings already during this fiscal year, according to the US Border Patrol (USBP). Given the pressure Biden was getting from Republicans and even a few Democrats joining the chorus of people tired of the situation, something had to give.
So far, Biden has eliminated the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which forced asylum seekers at the southern border to wait in Mexico while their claims were processed. The end of this policy came after the Supreme Court ruled he could do so.
This ruling is what set fire to the powder keg of illegal immigration we have been seeing in recent months. It effectively put nothing between any illegal and the promised land of the US besides some desert landscape and mountains.
Then there was the whole debacle with Title 42 of the Public Health Service Act.
This allowed the US to be rid of illegal immigrants on public health grounds, and it was widely used during the COVID pandemic to leave the US responsible for Americans and not the freeloading illegals. Sending back 1.8 million out of the US was a great start, yet Biden wanted to get back to finding new voters, he set April 1st as a target date to end it.
Naturally, when Biden looked to end Title 42, there was a huge fight against removing it. Even Congressional Democrats were speaking out against the end of this program.
On April 25th, a federal district court issued a temporary injunction, thus stopping Biden’s order to rescind the procedure in its tracks. Currently, this case is tied up in litigation and could be for some time.
The strangest part of the removal of Magnus is how he stood for the removal of Title 42. Calling it a “human cost” on illegal immigrants, he was a Democrat’s wet dream. With his desire to make the job easy and just let people through, he acted like he was going to give Biden and the rest of the left everything they wanted.
This is despite strong objections from conservatives that the immigration laws need to be enforced as written.
With Magnus leaving office so abruptly, neither he nor the CBP or USBP have issued any statements about his departure. Nobody expects the person Biden chooses to follow him will be much better or even more effective in his position.
Instead, it’s most likely that this will be an even bigger puppet who does what Biden says and not what’s best for the American people.
