Politico: “Biden’s top border chief comes under internal fire”

Official U.S. Government Photo of Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus

The “crisis” along the U.S./Mexico border is a key issue in the congressional midterm elections, with Republicans making the border a central campaign issue.  Daniel Lippman for Politico writes that the Biden administration may be looking for a “fall guy” for immigration policies:

‘As migrant encounters along the southern border continue to set records, frustration is mounting inside the Biden administration with the head of Customs and Border Protection.

Five current administration officials who work with CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus portrayed him as unengaged in his job, saying he often doesn’t attend White House meetings on the situation on the border, badmouths other agencies to colleagues and superiors, and has not built relationships within CBP and across other agencies to address the influx of migrants at the border. They complain he is unfamiliar with some of the operations of CBP and instead is focused primarily on reforming the culture of the Border Patrol, addressing its long list of allegations of racism and violence.” (bold added).

Commissioner Magnus previously was police chief of Fargo, North Dakota (made famous by a cult classic film, Richmond, California, and Tuscon, Arizona, a border city.

Kj