Border Agents Warn New CBP Boss May 'Destroy' Agency as Migration Crisis Persists

The Senate approving Chris Magnus' nomination as the next head of Customs and Border Protection comes amid an ongoing migration crisis in the US that has already seen a record 1.7 million refugee apprehensions by the CBP along the country's southern border.

US Customs and Border Protection agents have been frustrated by the Senate's move to confirm President Joe Biden's nominee for commissioner of the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Fox News quoted an unnamed border agent as claiming that Magnus "is pretty much hated, especially by those of us in the Tucson Sector since we know him".

"Somehow he has made a career off of hating law enforcement. He destroyed TPD [Tucson Police Department] and will do the same to CBP as a whole", the agent claimed.

Another unnamed source asserted that "morale within Border Patrol is so low we expect absolutely nothing different than the elevation and appointments of people that are against a secure border", claiming that Magnus is "just par for the course under this [Biden] administration".

Migrants from Central America are detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing into the United States from Mexico, in Sunland Park, New Mexico, U.S., July 22, 2021.

© REUTERS / JOSE LUIS GONZALEZ

The insiders were echoed by former Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tom Homan telling Fox News that Magnus' confirmation by the Senate "completes the Biden administration's operational plan to destroy the most secure border we ever had under President Trump".

"The heroic men and women of the Border Patrol deserved better and the Democrats with help from Susan Collins showed their contempt for those that put their lives on the line to protect this great nation while we sleep", Homan alleged.

The remarks came after senators voted 50-47 on Tuesday to greenlight Magnus, a former police chief in Tucson, Arizona, to be the new CBP boss.

Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) insisted in a statement that the vote "gives Arizona much-needed leadership at Customs and Border Protection at a time when we continue to face challenges at the border demonstrated by the increase in migrants in the Yuma Sector over the past two days".

Critics, however, earlier slammed Magnus as the "wrong man at the wrong time" for CBP, which reported a record 1.7 million migrant apprehensions at the southern border in fiscal 2021.

In a Senate Finance Committee nomination hearing in October, Republicans repeatedly tried to prod Magnus to describe the border situation as a "crisis", something he declined to do.

Calling the border situation "one of the most serious problems that we face right now", the 61-year-old said he wanted to spend time working to mend a broken system and "a little less time debating what the terminology is".

The developments unfold as the migration crisis continues in the US.

When assuming office in January, President Joe Biden started to reverse the Trump administration's hardline immigration policies, halting construction of a border wall, moving to end "harsh and extreme immigration enforcement", and promising to "restore and expand" the asylum system.

Other steps included rescinding the Trump travel ban and pledging a "path to citizenship" for the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants already living in the US.