Wyden Delays Hearing on Biden's Nominee to Lead Customs and Border Protection

• July 22, 2021, 9:00 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON — In an antithetic determination by a committee president successful the president’s ain party, Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon is refusing to docket a proceeding for President Biden’s nominee to tally U.S. Customs and Border Protection until the medication answers questions astir the national effect to the unrest successful Portland, Ore., past summer.

Mr. Wyden, a Democrat and the president of the Senate Finance Committee, notified the White House this week of his determination to hold a proceeding for Chris Magnus, the constabulary main successful Tucson, Ariz. Mr. Biden nominated Chief Magnus successful April to tally the agency, which plays a cardinal relation successful addressing the influx of migrants astatine the country’s confederate border.

Mr. Wyden said that for months, helium had been asking officials from the Justice and Homeland Security Departments to reply circumstantial questions astir however the agencies, nether erstwhile President Donald J. Trump, prepared for the bonzer measurement of sending national instrumentality enforcement officers into the streets of Portland, and what happened connected the ground, erstwhile protests determination turned convulsive aft George Floyd’s execution by a constabulary serviceman successful Minneapolis.

Standing up a military-type presence successful the mediate of downtown protests against constabulary unit remains 1 of the astir contentious decisions that Mr. Trump made during his clip successful office.

Mr. Wyden is simply a wide who holds 1 of the astir almighty posts successful the Senate. He was elected to the enclosure successful 1996 aft serving successful the House since 1981, wherever helium represented a territory that includes parts of Portland.

“While it is wide that Customs and Border Protection faces pressing issues,” helium said successful the statement, “as the elder legislator from Oregon, I americium incapable to beforehand this nominee until D.H.S. and D.O.J. gives Oregonians immoderate consecutive answers astir what it was up to successful Portland past year, and who was responsible.”

The determination by Mr. Wyden comes arsenic the travel of migrants crossed the country’s confederate borderline has surpassed the highest levels of caller years. The Border Patrol, which is portion of Customs and Border Protection, caught migrants crossing into the state more than 178,000 times without documentation successful June, the astir apprehensions since April 2000.

The medication is planning for however it volition assistance a nationalist wellness order enactment successful spot astatine the opening of the pandemic, which it has utilized to crook backmost migrants astatine the borderline much than 1 cardinal times. Lifting that bid volition further summation the fig of radical trying to get into the country, raising the consciousness of urgency to get a imperishable person successful spot astatine Customs and Border Protection.

“Given the continuing humanitarian situation astatine the border, determination is an urgent request for his enactment and expertise,” members of the Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force, a radical of section instrumentality enforcement officials that supports an migration overhaul, wrote of Chief Magnus successful an unfastened letter Wednesday.

A twelvemonth ago, arsenic the protests successful Portland stretched connected passim the statesmanlike campaign, Mr. Biden said Mr. Trump was utilizing “egregious tactics” to code the unrest successful Portland.

“Homeland Security agents — without a intelligibly defined mandate oregon authorization — are ranging acold from national property, stripped of badges and insignia and identifying markings, to detain people,” Mr. Biden said successful a statement astatine the time. “They are brutally attacking peaceful protesters, including a U.S. Navy veteran.”

Senator James Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma, has placed a clasp connected the information of Chief Magnus and respective different homeland information officials until, helium said past week, “we tin really get the Biden medication to laic retired what their argumentation is going to be, and what they’re going to bash to beryllium capable to really enforce the law.”

That benignant of determination is emblematic of senators who are not successful the president’s party, but interference from an state of the president is not.

A spokeswoman from the Department of Homeland Security said the bureau responded to Mr. Wyden privately past week and “looks guardant to moving with him to resoluteness his concerns.”

Keith Chu, a spokesperson for Mr. Wyden, said the section had provided lone “partial” answers to the senator’s questions. A Justice Department spokeswoman said connected Wednesday that the bureau was moving with Mr. Wyden’s bureau connected his requests.

According to a White House official, the medication is hopeful that the Senate volition cooperate with plans to determination guardant with Chief Magnus’s nomination.

Downtown Portland was shuttered for weeks past summertime due to the fact that of radical protesting against constabulary unit aft a achromatic Minneapolis constabulary serviceman killed Mr. Floyd, an unarmed Black man, connected May 25. While the shooting prompted protests astir the country, demonstrations successful downtown Portland outlasted those successful astir different cities.

Positioning himself arsenic a law-and-order president, Mr. Trump described the metropolis arsenic lawless, filled with “anarchists” who “hate our country.” And helium praised the actions of equipped national officers from aggregate agencies who fired teardrop state into crowds and pulled protesters into unmarked vans. Among the officers deployed to Portland were members of a special tactical squad from Customs and Border Protection that is typically deployed for operations against cause smuggling.

Doing truthful lone incensed the protesters, who had been raising concerns that fascism was connected the emergence successful the United States.

“The uncoordinated deployment of poorly trained national instrumentality enforcement successful Oregon, and successful different parts of the country, indispensable ne'er hap again,” Mr. Wyden wrote successful a June 9 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas.

An inspector wide report released successful April recovered that the Homeland Security Department had the authorization to nonstop national officers to Portland, but did not decently hole them oregon coordinate with different agencies.

While the study addressed immoderate of Mr. Wyden’s questions, helium is seeking further answers astir who led the agents connected the crushed and whether they were identifiable, with badges and uniforms. He has besides asked what guidance, if any, the officers were fixed astir however to interact with protesters and members of the media. And helium has asked for a database of instrumentality that national officers utilized portion deployed successful Portland.

Mr. Wyden has besides asked astir the deployment of national officers to Portland hours aft Mr. Biden’s inauguration.

Mr. Mayorkas began a departmentwide reappraisal successful March of the decisions that led to the agency’s engagement successful the Portland protests. The reappraisal is seeking “to guarantee that each D.H.S. instrumentality enforcement unit person due grooming and run pursuant to policies successful keeping with champion practices and law,” said Marsha Espinosa, a section spokeswoman. She said the bureau “is committed to respecting the rights of each individuals who peacefully workout their First Amendment freedoms of code and assembly.”

In May, Mr. Biden revoked a Trump-era enforcement bid that had paved the mode for national instrumentality enforcement officers to descend connected Portland with the stated extremity of protecting national buildings and property.