Show an ad over header. AMP  

Biden to nominate progressive Tucson police chief to lead border agency

12 April 2021
 Dan Ackermann

President Biden will nominate Tucson police chief Chris Magnus, a longtime critic of Trump-era immigration policies, to oversee Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the New York Times reports.

Why it matters: If confirmed, Magnus would be tasked with addressing a border surge that many have labeled the first new crisis of the Biden administration. The U.S. saw a massive spike in border crossings last month, including a record number of unaccompanied minors.

Background: Biden was compelled to choose Magnus because of his efforts as a progressive police chief who promoted community policing efforts, especially in a city close to the Southern border, according to the Times.

  • Magnus, along with five other newly installed Homeland Security leaders, would work under DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to lead border security and immigration policies as well as coordinated defense.
  • Magnus has not shied away from calling out Trump-era policies in the past, writing in a 2017 NYT op-ed: "The harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric and [Attorney General] Sessions’s reckless policies ignore a basic reality known by most good cops and prosecutors."
  • "If people are afraid of the police, if they fear they may become separated from their families or harshly interrogated based on their immigration status, they won’t report crimes or come forward as witnesses."

The big picture: Under Trump, DHS faced a revolving door of leaders who were accused by rights groups of inhumane border policies, including family separation.

  • Members of Congress have called for greater accountability at CBP after it was revealed in 2019 that dozens of border agents exchanged obscene images of Hispanic lawmakers and joked about migrant deaths in private social media groups.
  • Magnus, a gay white man, rose to prominence when a photo of him in uniform holding a Black Lives Matter sign went viral in 2014. The photo led to pushback from the local police union.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

Section2

Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.