Chris Magnus has many challenges to overcome in his new role as commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Authorities pass a border wall construction site, in Mission, Texas, Monday, Nov. 16, 2020. President-elect Joe Biden will face immediate pressure to fulfill his pledge to stop border wall construction. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)LOS EBANOS, Texas – The U.S. government has been trying to take Pamela Rivas' land for a border wall since before Joe Biden was vice president. This is my inheritance from my family.”Biden faces immediate pressure when he enters the White House in January to fulfill a pledge to stop border wall construction. He pledged in August to build “not another foot” of border wall and said he would “withdraw the lawsuits."

Biden on Monday announced the nomination of Alejandro Mayorkas, who served under President Barack Obama as deputy secretary of Homeland Security and director of the Citizenship and Immigration Services. And he helped negotiate the first homeland security memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Cuba, where he was born. If confirmed by the Senate, Mayorkas, who turns 61 on Tuesday, would be the first Hispanic, and immigrant, to lead DHS. For more than a year, it has been led by an acting secretary who hasn't been confirmed by the Senate. Bersin said Mayorkas is a “centrist,” who will seek to balance humanitarian concerns with the need for border security.

The Justice Department doesnt have the manpower to surge agents to high-crime areas, so it is borrowing from Homeland Security. Throughout his presidency, Trump has leaned on Homeland Security to carry out his political objectives, including cracking down on illegal immigration and slowing legal immigration applications. Critics say the federal forces have stoked tensions, creating new images of violence that could lead frightened viewers to vote for Trump. Homeland Security first jumped into the federal response to the Floyd protests in May as some demonstrations erupted into sporadic violence around the country. But effort shifted into high gear over the July Fourth weekend as Homeland Security agents and officers from at least a half a dozen components of the sprawling organization were arriving in Portland.