Biden’s top border chief comes under internal fire

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.

Some of the officials believe Magnus hasn’t prioritized addressing the high number of migrants attempting to cross the border, but instead has continually tried to shift blame to other agencies. As an example, two of the five current administration officials said Magnus brought his boss, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, pages of grievances about Immigration and Customs Enforcement. While CBP is responsible for securing U.S. borders at and between ports of entry, ICE is the agency responsible for arresting and detaining undocumented people within U.S. borders.

After a trip earlier this year to the border to meet with his Border Patrol colleagues, Magnus asked for an emergency meeting with Mayorkas and other senior DHS officials, during which he listed complaints about ICE that he’d gathered during tour stops from the Border Patrol’s rank and file, according to one of the five administration officials, who was familiar with the meeting.

“He’s not in the game,” said another one of the administration officials. “Every time there’s a meeting and he’s in it, we’ll get to a conclusion and Magnus will have some sidebar issue that he wants to raise and we’re all like ‘What the fuck is that about?’”

Magnus, 61, a former police chief with more than 40 years of law enforcement experience, was narrowly confirmed by the Senate last December, taking over an agency of more than 60,000 employees amid a record year of migrant encounters at the southwest border.

In a statement, he acknowledged he has spent his 10 months on the job getting up to speed on the agency’s “many complex areas.” He noted CBP is an operational agency, not a policy-making one. But he added that he is “closely involved in the major DHS immigration, border security, trade, and other policy discussions.” And he defended the approach he has brought to the role.

“I’ve always been someone who aggressively questions the status quo, looks for ways to do things better, and engages directly with the public and workforce,” he said. “In any organization, some people are threatened by this. They don’t like it when someone questions ‘why’ certain things must be done the way they’ve always been done. I’m not here to back down to the predictable challenges from those people.”

Magnus also made the case that his critics were either unfair or uninformed. Six of those internal critics, for example, remarked to POLITICO that they had seen Magnus fall asleep during multiple meetings, including one earlier this year on how to handle the current swell of Venezuelans crossing the border. Magnus explained to POLITICO that he experienced brief periods of tiredness as a side effect of his multiple sclerosis, the neurological condition he was diagnosed with 15 years ago; and that he adjusted medication levels to deal with those side effects.

“Ironically, the most common complaint I’ve received from colleagues is about my tendency to ask too many questions in meetings and my desire to know what some believe is more than necessary on various topics,” he said, adding he intends “to remain fully engaged in the work of leading CBP and advocating on behalf of those who work here as well as for the American public.”

A DHS spokesperson backed up Magnus’ leadership, saying in a statement: “On border security, CBP is a critical component of the DHS-led $60 million anti-human smuggler campaign that has already led to 5,000 arrests with our partners, and we’re mobilizing additional personnel to support the Border Patrol. Commissioner Magnus plays a key role in all of this, and that’s where our focus remains.”

The complaints about Magnus’ management and his pushback to it reflect the latest tensions that have erupted inside the Biden administration’s immigration apparatus. There have been multiple high ranking departures on the team within the White House and general confusion about who has what portfolio.

CBP officials have privately complained that ICE needs to step up its work to help move migrants out of border facilities. Currently, most migrants who approach the border are turned away, or “expelled,” under a Trump-era public health directive. But those released into the country are held in CBP facilities intended to be short-term — for no more than 72 hours. Some of those migrants are then transferred to longer-term detention centers managed by ICE. But the pace of migration has overwhelmed holding facilities overseen by both agencies.

CBP has also complained that ICE has failed to keep up with issuing “notice to appear” documents, which instruct migrants when to appear before immigration judges and can begin the deportation process, according to one former Biden administration official. CBP has raised concerns that decreased enforcement action by ICE may encourage even more migrants to make the trek north — and strain already overwhelmed Border Patrol officers.

In turn, other administration officials have complained that Magnus, a former police chief in Tucson, Ariz., and Richmond, Calif., has lacked knowledge of or interest in key immigration issues.

One former senior White House official said it was noticed among staff how often Magnus sent a deputy to sit in on high-level interagency calls about immigration. One of the current administration officials said Mayorkas, in turn, often relied upon CBP’s deputy commissioner, Troy Miller, or its chief of staff, Nathaniel Kaine, or Border Patrol chief Raul Ortiz for help.

“Operationally he’s not even in the conversation,” said the administration official. “He knows the border, but the ins-and-outs and the size and capabilities of CBP is pretty far outside his remit and understanding how to deal with other parts of the administration.”

Magnus’ focus on reforming the culture of CBP is not unusual for the agency chief. Former commissioner Gil Kerlikowske also prioritized bringing order and discipline to CBP almost a decade ago when he served in the role.

Between 2005 and 2012, more than 2,000 CBP employees were arrested for misconduct, according to the Government Accountability Office. The problems have continued since then, with a congressional investigation revealing last year that CBP leaders failed to provide “adequate discipline” against Border Patrol agents who posted violent and sexist comments in secret Facebook groups, and cited the agency’s “failure to prevent these violent and offensive statements.” Results of a separate investigation by CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility, released this summer, found agents used undue force against Haitian migrants who had gathered beneath an international bridge outside Texas.

One person who worked with Magnus in his previous police jobs in Tucson and Richmond thinks he’s a logical choice to reform an often-troubled agency given his track record in revamping police departments he led prior to the Biden administration.

“Every job he’s taken on, he’s left it a better place, and he’s overcome his own medical challenges and he’s able to make the agency that he works for a better agency when he leaves,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. “He’s willing to challenge conventional thinking.”