We’ve been watching the drama unfold in Customs and Border Protection since last Friday when the head of the agency first responded to a demand that he resign or be fired by basically saying hell no, I won’t go. But less than 24 hours later, he did an about-face and tendered his resignation, which Joe Biden accepted almost immediately after thanking him for his service. As I pointed out on Saturday, the Biden administration was just looking for a fall guy to take the blame and Magnus drew the short straw. He was put in an untenable position caused by Biden’s own immigration policies, even if he did support the policies himself. It turns out that I wasn’t the only one feeling that way. The head of the union that represents our Border Patrol agents vented his displeasure on Twitter over the weekend, saying that while Magnus deserved to be fired, he was definitely being used as a scapegoat and that “nothing will change” on the border after he is replaced if either the underlying policies don’t change or the people at the top aren’t replaced.

CBP Commissioner Magnus deserved to be fired. As a crisis rages at our border he focused on imaginary BP "culture" problems instead of enforcing our laws. He was in over his head.

We have no idea who they'll replace him with. The core problem remains-Biden, Harris and Mayorkas.

— Border Patrol Union – NBPC (@BPUnion) November 13, 2022

We were opposed to the Magnus appt from the outset. He had a long history of anti-BP sentiment and he thought BP agents were the bad guys. That's why they selected him. The entire Biden Admin despises BP agents.

We have little confidence his replacement will be any better.

— Border Patrol Union – NBPC (@BPUnion) November 13, 2022

CBP Commissioner Magnus deserved to be fired. As a crisis rages at our border he focused on imaginary BP “culture” problems instead of enforcing our laws. He was in over his head. We have no idea who they’ll replace him with. The core problem remains-Biden, Harris and Mayorkas.

We were opposed to the Magnus appt from the outset. He had a long history of anti-BP sentiment and he thought BP agents were the bad guys. That’s why they selected him. The entire Biden Admin despises BP agents. We have little confidence his replacement will be any better.

Reading further into the comments from CBP’s union, perhaps “scapegoat” is a bit of a strong word. Magnus was undermining the mission of the Border Patrol to be sure, and he seemed to be a willing participant. But the reality is that he couldn’t have done such an awful job without first being appointed by Joe Biden and then maintaining the President’s support of the current open border policies throughout his tenure.

There’s an old saying about feces tending to roll downhill and the pile landed in Chris Magnus’ office. We quickly saw calls for the ax to swing a bit higher up the food chain and take out Alejandro Mayorkas as the next step, but they were only coming from Republicans so Biden is unlikely to listen. (Fox News)

“The Biden administration found their fall guy for the chaos at the border,” Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital. “Responsibility for the border crisis lies with Joe Biden and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and real accountability starts with Mayorkas being impeached. Every moment the border continues to remain open only heightens the present humanitarian and national security crisis.”

Notice how Ted Cruz isn’t calling for Mayorkas to resign or to be fired by Joe Biden. (Neither of which is likely to happen.) He’s calling for Mayorkas to be impeached. We’re still anticipating a slim GOP majority in the House in January, so that may be possible if whoever the next Speaker turns out to be can herd all of the Republican cats into the corral and keep them there. But there’s no conceivable way that he winds up being removed, particularly now that the GOP has apparently lost their last chance of taking the majority in the Senate.

Even if they had managed that feat, it’s doubtful that they could have gotten 100% solidarity among Senate Republicans to remove him, to say nothing of bringing along any Democrats and reaching a two-thirds vote threshold. So even if the House does manage to impeach Mayorkas next year, it’s basically going to be a dog and pony show just like both of Trump’s impeachments.

That doesn’t mean that it’s not worth doing of course. The Biden border crisis is nothing short of a disaster and someone should be held accountable. But then again, I was one of the foolish people who thought the American public was going to deliver some of that accountability during the midterms, but far too many people simply held their noses and voted for the status quo. And now they’re going to be getting it good and hard for at least the next two years.