Top Border Official Says Biden Administration Trying to Force Him to Resign

Chris Magnus testifies on his nomination to be the next U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner before a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Oct. 19, 2021. Rod Lamkey/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

The commissioner of the agency tasked with border security said Nov. 11 that President Joe Biden’s administration is trying to force him to resign.

Chris Magnus, head of Customs and Border Protection, told news outlets that Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, informed him that he must step down or he will likely be fired.

Magnus has refused to resign.

“I expressed to him that I felt there was no justification for me to resign when I still cared deeply about the work I was doing and felt that that work was focused on the things I was hired to do in the first place,” Magnus told the Los Angeles Times.

“I am excited about the progress I made and look forward continuing that work,” he added.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

CBP is part of DHS.

Both Magnus and Mayorkas are appointees of Biden.

Mayorkas took his position in early 2021, shortly after Biden assumed office. Magnus, the former police chief of Tucson, Arizona, assumed office in December 2021 after a 50–47 vote by the U.S. Senate.

Under Biden, illegal immigration has skyrocketed as the president and Mayorkas reversed or altered key Trump-era policies and efforts, including construction of the border wall and deportation rules.

In October alone, Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly 210,000 illegal aliens, with almost 87,000 others evading agents, according to provisional CBP data obtained by The Epoch Times.

Some 5.5 million illegal immigrants are estimated to have crossed into the United States since Biden took office.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Homeland Security, was among those voicing support for ousting Magnus.

“Don’t stop there! Clean house,” he said in a statement.

Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa), a member of the House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Homeland Security, said that Mayorkas should have resigned a long time ago.

“Secretary Mayorkas and President Biden have failed at the border & created the worst border crisis in modern history,” she said.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for strong border security, also said that nothing would change as long as Mayorkas remains in his position.