The southern border is a wreck and everyone knows it, even if Democrats don’t want to acknowledge it. With the House (fingers tightly crossed) about to change to Republican control, it looks like the Biden administration is trying to do some damage control and blame a scapegoat.

So, where is Kamala Harris, who was supposedly put in charge of the border crisis eighteen months ago? She found a way to weasel out of doing that job, and is nowhere to be found.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, therefore, has been left holding the proverbial bag on border security. Which makes sense, as he is THE SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY. Kamala Harris might have been tasked with “fixing” the border, but Congress can hold Mayorkas responsible for it. And there have been calls to impeach him over the failures at the border, plus his automatic blaming of Border Patrol agents for “whipping” illegals that were coming across the border. There was no “whipping,” but that didn’t stop Mayorkas from throwing the Border Patrol on horseback right under the bus, even though he knew the story was a hoax. There have been calls for Mayorkas to be impeached for a while now, but with a Republican House on the horizon (hopefully), that may have a chance to become a reality.

Now, impeaching a cabinet secretary has only been done once before, and that was in 1876, and ended in an acquittal. But Mayorkas knows he has a target on his back. A Republican majority in the House could easily draw up a resolution to impeach and vote on it. The procedure is similar to a presidential impeachment and would require a two-thirds majority vote to convict in the Senate. Even if the Republicans are in the minority in the Senate, how many Democrat senators from border states (Arizona in particular) would have qualms about tossing Mayorkas under the impeachment bus? Mayorkas is expendable, and he knows it.

Which is why Mayorkas is trying to get rid of Customs and Border Patrol commissioner Chris Magnus first. A report came out on Friday that Mayorkas had told Magnus to either resign or be fired.

Chris Magnus was told to resign or be fired less than a year after he was confirmed as the Biden administration’s choice to lead the agency, according to two people who were briefed on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. He is refusing to step down.”

Magnus’s removal is part of a larger shakeup expected at Homeland Security as it struggles to manage migrants coming from a wider range of countries, including Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. This comes as Republicans are likely to take control of the House in January and are expected to launch investigations into the border.”

Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, confirmed that Magnus was being pushed out.”

The Los Angeles Times was first to report on the ultimatum. In a statement to the newspaper, Magnus said he was asked by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to step down or be fired. He said he wouldn’t step down and defended his record.”

Neither Customs and Border Protection nor the Homeland Security Department responded to requests for comment. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she’d seen the reports but had no comment.”

Not only is Magnus refusing to resign, he released his own statement later on Friday.

Chris Magnus wrote in an email to senior Customs and Border Protection staff that he is determined to remain on the job.”

“I want to make this clear: I have no plans to resign as CBP Commissioner. I didn’t take this job as a resume builder. I came to Washington, DC— moved my family here— because I care about this agency, its mission, and the goals of this Administration,” the letter obtained by Fox News states.”

If Mayorkas is serious about getting rid of Magnus, then Magnus is daring Maykoras to fire him. Will Mayorkas follow through on his threat? He has reportedly reassigned Magnus’s responsibilities to others within the Department of Homeland Security. But has Joe Biden given the thumbs up to firing Magnus, or is this an empty threat by Mayorkas in the hopes that Magnus will resign after less than a year on the job? There have already been media stories, obviously leaked in the hopes of pressuring Magnus, casting him in a bad light before this “resign or be fired” move. Magnus has made his position clear, which makes the next move Mayorkas’s.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air says that if Magnus goes, Mayorkas might be in even more trouble.

At some point, the silly impotence of trying to push Magnus out will end as it should have last month, before the nasty leaks and innuendo. Biden will formally fire Magnus, and Magnus will then start chatting up House Republicans about his future testimony. If Biden and Mayorkas don’t like that, then they should adopt better border-control policies and keep Magnus inside the tent. If they did that, perhaps Magnus won’t be inclined to burn it all down.”

At this point, Mayorkas can’t afford to NOT fire Magnus, because if he doesn’t, he will look weaker than he already does. Which certainly would make next January under a Republican-controlled House of Representatives an interesting place to be. But here’s a final question – would Ron Klain Joe Biden fire Alejandro Mayorkas before he could be impeached?

Featured image: DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, World Travel & Tourism Council via Flickr, cropped, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)