Head of US border guard reluctantly resigns | Abroad

The head of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the US government agency in charge of border security, resigns. The White House announced on Saturday that it will accept the resignation of Christopher Magnus.

A day earlier, US media reported that Magnus, who was previously a police chief in cities in Arizona and California, was asked to resign. If he didn’t hand in his resignation, the government would fire, he was informed by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Earlier, Magnus said to the newspaper The Washington Post that he had no intention of quitting his job.

CBP is regularly accused of mistreating migrants; Magnus wanted to bring about an internal culture change. However, he could not agree with policymakers on tackling record numbers of migrants crossing the US border into Mexico.

Between October 2021 and September 2022 (the US fiscal year), 2.28 million undocumented migrants were rounded up at the country’s southern border, compared to 1.73 million in the same period a year earlier.

Since President Joe Biden took office, the number of people trying to reach the US from Central America has been increasing. More and more people are leaving Central America because of the poverty and violence that prevails there. Recently, many migrants from Venezuela have also turned up at the border.

ttn-43