Border Patrol chief has 'no plans to resign' after Mayorkas told him to quit or be fired

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus says he doesn't plan on resigning after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told him to quit or get fired.

"I want to make this clear: I have no plans to resign as CBP Commissioner," Magnus told The Washington Post. "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 plan to oust Magnus comes after a year of nonstop record-high illegal immigration encounters at the U.S. southern border and Republican lawmakers writing to Biden asking that Magnus be fired. 

Republicans are also coming for Mayorkas, having said impeaching hearing for him should be a top priority for a GOP-led House and or Senate. 

Magnus told the Los Angeles Times that Mayorkas told him to either resign or else Mayorkas would recommend to President Biden that he be fired.

The CBP chief said that he had the conversation with Mayorkas after Magnus decided to discontinue a "retention" bonus for Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz.

Magnus had previously told Mayorkas that Ortiz didn’t have the same philosophy and approach to reforms as he did. 

On Tuesday, before Magnus' conversation with Mayorkas on Wednesday, Magnus went to a meeting of border patrol chiefs in El Paso after the DHS secretary had ordered him not to. 

"After me making extensive attempts to reach [Mayorkas] and discuss the matter, I went to the meeting so I could engage with the chiefs on various issues and concerns. I also met with Chief Ortiz to see how we might best work together moving forward," Magnus said, according to the Times. 

On Thursday, DHS Deputy Secretary John Tien also told Magnus to resign or else he would be fired in the upcoming days. 

"I expressed to him that I felt there was no justification for me to resign when I still cared deeply about the work I was doing and felt that that work was focused on the things I was hired to do in the first place," Magnus said.