It seems like only yesterday when Joe Biden’s Customs and Border Protection chief Chris Magnus was saying ‘hell no, I won’t go.’ (Actually, it was two days ago.) It was immediately understandable why Magnus would feel that he didn’t need to resign and was being made to take the fall for the gross errors and incompetence of others. The man had been handed an impossible task without anywhere near the resources required to accomplish it. But last night, he thought better of his options and relented, tendering his resignation. At least for the moment, this decision staves off an ugly fight between Magnus and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. But this may not be the last we hear of Magnus because it’s possible that the House of Representatives might want to have a chat with him if the GOP takes control of the lower chamber in January. (NY Post)

President Biden’s embattled border security czar has resigned Saturday after he was given an ultimatum to either step down or get fired — as a migrant crisis rages at the US border with Mexico.

US Customs and Border Protection head Chris Magnus submitted a resignation letter just one day after he said he was staying put despite a request from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkos on Wednesday that he leave or get sacked.

“It has been a privilege and honor to be part of your administration,” Magnus, 61, wrote in a letter to Biden.

At least for now, we’re left to speculate as to what sort of deal was made behind the scenes to get Magnus to agree to go quietly. His resignation letter, including the phrase “a privilege and honor to be part of your administration,” looks like a standard message designed to paint a happy face on an ugly situation, so there was almost certainly a deal worked out during the previous 24 hours.

But it’s worth remembering that Chris Magnus was the fall guy in all of his. He arrived in office last year and was immediately put in the middle of a situation reminiscent of the famous chocolate factory episode of I Love Lucy. In this case, Magnus is Lucy while Joe Biden is the machine operator. He was hypothetically supposed to prevent illegal immigration while his boss had already announced to the world that America’s borders were effectively open and nearly everyone who managed to make it across would be allowed to stay. Policies were put in place to ensure that happened and potential migrants from across the globe eagerly took Biden up on his offer.

Now the Biden border crisis is on full display for all to see and the results have been nothing less than catastrophic. Biden’s team conveniently waited until after the election was over to pretend to take some action (because doing so beforehand would have amounted to a tacit admission of failure), but now somebody had to found to take the blame and Chris Magnus drew the short straw.

So what changed between Friday evening and yesterday? As I suggested above, Magnus was almost certainly offered some sort of a deal. Keep your eyes on the news and look for a very quiet announcement that he’s received an offer of a lucrative position on some board of directors or potentially some sort of ambassadorship. Magnus is currently 62, so he’s not in a position to fully retire and he likely feels the party owes him something more. (And he’s probably right.)

But that doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of him. If the GOP takes back the gavel in the House in January, you can expect some hearings to be held, asking how the southern border turned into such an ongoing disaster. And Magnus would have to be high on the list to testify under oath. Expect him to be asked about conversations he’s had with Biden’s staff and what specific instructions he was given. If he has any documents putting such policies in writing, those will need to be dredged up as well.

In closing, we’ll release an additional bit of video supplied to Hot Air by yet another source deep inside DHS on condition of anonymity. Here’s Chris Magnus during his first day on the job at Customs and Border Protection.