The confirmation comes as the US is seeing record numbers of migrants apprehended at the border. There were more than 1.6 million encounters with migrants along the southern border in the 2021 fiscal year. That figure is more than quadruple the number of the prior fiscal year and the highest annual total on record.
"By a vote of 50-47, the #Senate confirmed Chris Magnus to be Commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection," the Senate Press Gallery tweeted Tuesday.
Magnus, former police chief of Arizona's Tucson, takes over at a time when the Biden administration is under intense pressure from immigration activists and critics on one hand and Republicans on the other.
Activists are demanding that Biden reverse Trump-era policies like Title 42 and dismantle the inhumane parts of the immigration system.