Last April, President Biden nominated Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez to lead the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency. On August 4, 2021, in a 7-6 party line vote, the Democrats on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved his nomination. Since that committee vote over four months ago, Democrats still have not brought Sheriff Gonzalez's ICE nomination up for a full Senate confirmation vote. Why? The most likely answer is that Sheriff Gonzalez simply does not have enough votes to be confirmed by the full Senate. Frankly, if the votes were there, our Senate Democrats would have already confirmed him by now.
If the ICE nomination is actually dead, this will allow Sheriff Gonzalez to remain focused on our local issues, such as the surging violent crime rate and the on-going, systemic problems inside the Harris County Jail. Since 2018, Harris County Democrats have occupied all county-wide elected offices, the courts, and have control of Commissioners Court. In short, we can't blame Republicans for the current state of things. Our elected Democratic officials must start working together to proactively address our local issues, starting with reducing crime and resolving the county jail crisis. For more information, please see the links below:
From 2018:
UPDATE JAN. 2022: President Biden has officially renominated Sheriff Gonzalez to lead ICE. Let's hope the Senate takes action soon, one way or the other. Please click on the link below for more information:
UPDATE 3/10/22: Senate Democrats have now placed Sheriff Gonzalez's ICE nomination "on HOLD" pending a review into an alleged domestic violence incident. Frankly, I am very surprised that Senate Democrats were unaware of these allegations. During the normal vetting process, something like this should have been identified, reviewed, and addressed. For more information, please see the links below:
Police officer's affidavit: SKM_C45821073009350 (senate.gov)
UPDATE 5/30/22: It's been 13 months since President Biden first nominated Sheriff Gonzalez to be lead the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency. At this point, it appears the nomination is dead. In the meantime, violent crime continues to surge, and the Harris County Jail is entering into a crisis situation - see link below.
UPDATE 6/28/22: Yesterday, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez advised he was withdrawing from consideration as ICE Director. Basically, the votes weren't there to confirm his nomination, so Sheriff Gonzalez decided to move on. For more information, please click on the media links below:
FOR MORE POSTS, please routinely check HarrisCountyDemocrats.com.