WASHINGTON, DC (KGUN) — Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus is President Biden’s choice to lead Customs and Border Protection. That job requires Senate approval, Magnus ran into intense questioning in a Senate Committee Tuesday.
Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus has a chance to move from one tough job, to a job even tougher, from Tucson Police Chief to Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection,
Advocates like Arizona Senators Krysten Sinema and Mark Kelly praised his work in Tucson.
Members of the Senate Finance Committee questioned Magnus on the full range of CBP issues, from trade regulation to immigration and the border.
Republican Senators tried and failed to get Magnus to agree with them and describe Biden’s border policies as creating the crisis on the border.
South Carolina Senator Tim Scott asked Magnus: “With a million plus people crossing our border, with more than 200 thousand just in July, with the actions taken against the border agents, is there a crisis at our border?”
Magnus: “Senator, thank you for the question, but if I might just make the observation that perhaps as a nation if we spent a little less time debating what the terminology is and spent a little more time trying to fix a broken system and working together, we could address what I’ve already acknowledged is one of the most serious problems we face right now in our nation.”
Asked about whether the U.S. should reverse President Biden’s order stopping border wall construction, Magnus said after talking with agents there are some places where more wall makes sense but he also wants to improve technology and basic communications.
And Magnus told Senators, there are things they should provide to reduce conditions that clog the immigration system.
“We've been challenged with not enough asylum officers, not enough immigration judges, long waits for court dates. And these things. They take a toll. and this has been true in multiple administration's so it's going to require Congress to, to, to make a fix in this area.
Magnus' nomination still needs approval of the full Senate.