OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Chris Magnus resigned as the commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection a few months ago. Reports suggested that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and others forced him out and attempted to blame him for many of the failures at the southern border.
“The President has accepted the resignation of Christopher Magnus, the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. President Biden appreciates Commissioner Magnus’ nearly forty years of service and the contributions he made to police reform during his tenure as police chief in three U.S. cities. The President thanks Mr. Magnus for his service at CBP and wishes him well,” the White House said in a statement.
Magnus, who joined an organization focused on police reform, has taken several not-so-subtle digs online about the ongoing immigration crisis and wasted little time slamming the Biden administration.
“Susan Rice, Kristjen Nielsen,” he wrote recently on a story about migrant children being put to work and how the Biden administration “ignored warnings.”
“Over the past two years, more than 250,000 migrant children have come alone to the United States. Thousands of children have ended up in punishing jobs across the country — working overnight in slaughterhouses, replacing roofs, operating machinery in factories — all in violation of child labor laws, a recent Times investigation showed. After the article’s publication in February, the White House announced policy changes and a crackdown on companies that hire children,” the article stated.
He issued similar tweets in March about the border crisis.
“Sadly–right on point,” Magnus tweeted in response to an LA Times article that detailed how President Biden’s administration is proposing a new plan similar to one enacted by the Trump administration, which essentially argued that people who cross the border without permission should not be able to easily apply for asylum in the United States.
Sadly—right on point. https://t.co/98KESs01Ri
— Chris Magnus (@CMAGNUS20011) March 2, 2023
In February, Magnus shared a report from the New York Times titled, “Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S.,” which detailed the “record numbers” of migrants entering America under the Biden administration and how many ended up in “dangerous jobs that violate child labor laws.”
What’s described in this article is sickening. Just sickening.
— Chris Magnus (@CMAGNUS20011) February 25, 2023
The NYT article, which largely avoids admitting the historic increase in migrants coming into the U.S. under the Biden administration, details a harrowing story for many once they are in the country.
“These workers are part of a new economy of exploitation: Migrant children, who have been coming into the United States without their parents in record numbers, are ending up in some of the most punishing jobs in the country, a New York Times investigation found. This shadow work force extends across industries in every state, flouting child labor laws that have been in place for nearly a century. Twelve-year-old roofers in Florida and Tennessee. Underage slaughterhouse workers in Delaware, Mississippi and North Carolina. Children sawing planks of wood on overnight shifts in South Dakota,” the article stated.
The Times did note this new epidemic exploded in 2021, which would be Biden’s first year in office.
The article also briefly details that since Biden took office, the U.S.-Mexico border has been ravaged by illegal immigrants trying to enter the country.
“Largely from Central America, the children are driven by economic desperation that was worsened by the pandemic. This labor force has been slowly growing for almost a decade, but it has exploded since 2021, while the systems meant to protect children have broken down,” the article states. “The number of unaccompanied minors entering the United States climbed to a high of 130,000 last year — three times what it was five years earlier — and this summer is expected to bring another wave.”
“These are not children who have stolen into the country undetected. The federal government knows they are in the United States, and the Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for ensuring sponsors will support them and protect them from trafficking or exploitation. But as more and more children have arrived, the Biden White House has ramped up demands on staffers to move the children quickly out of shelters and release them to adults. Caseworkers say they rush through vetting sponsors,” the article stated.
