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President Biden’s bid to lead the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement abruptly withdrew from consideration after months of uncertainty, leaving the Homeland Security Agency, which detains and deports undocumented immigrants without an approved director for the sixth year in a row.
Harris County, Texas, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said he notified Biden on Sunday, nearly a year after his Senate confirmation hearing, that he had decided to worship “after much prayer and deep thought.”
“I come to this difficult decision with the understanding that the challenges of preserving both the integrity of America’s borders and the global position of our country as a beacon of light for those seeking freedom and opportunity have never been greater.” he wrote, according to a copy. from his letter received from The Washington Post.
Gonzalez, who runs the country’s third-largest sheriff’s office, said he has decided to focus on rising crime in the Houston area, where he was first elected sheriff in 2016 and is now in his second term. Murders are on the rise, as in other cities across the country, he wrote, and the prison population has grown “above capacity,” which puts a strain on prison staff.
“All this leads me to the inevitable conclusion that in 2022 I must devote all my, inseparable attention and energy to fulfilling the duties that the people of Harris County have chosen me to fulfill,” he wrote.
During the hearing, Biden’s ICE candidate praised the immigrants, promising to uphold the “rule of law”
Biden first nominated Gonzalez, a law enforcement officer, in April 2021 to run an agency that was a political thunderstorm amid a guerrilla debate over immigration arrests and a growing number of border arrests.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mallorca called him a “strong choice” and called for his swift confirmation to lead DHS with an annual budget of $ 8 billion and more than 20,000 employees worldwide. ICE detains and deports immigrants, but it also has an investigative branch, an internal security investigation that investigates crimes such as drug smuggling and human trafficking.
Republicans questioned Gonzalez, a law enforcement official, about withdrawing the sheriff’s office from a voluntary program that helps the ICE find immigrants in county jails who are accused of crimes and may be deported. But Gonzalez testified at his confirmation hearing in July 2021 before the Senate Committee on Internal Security and Government Affairs that he would uphold the “rule of law” and would not end the program if it was confirmed.
The commission approved his party nomination, but he did not receive a single vote, and the president had to resubmit his nomination to Congress in January.
Gonzalez’s nomination was overturned in March when Sen. James Lankford, Oklahoma, a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Committee, called on Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (DN.Y.) and Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) To postpone the floor vote for his nomination. Lankford said he wanted the commission to investigate an allegation made by a former community college police officer that Gonzalez’s wife, Melissa Gonzalez, now president of the public college, wanted to file a domestic violence complaint against the sheriff.
The Commission conducted a bipartisan investigation and found no evidence to support the allegation, according to a summary of the findings made by the majority’s staff and received by The Post.
The commission found that the former police officer, who had filed a federal discrimination lawsuit that had nothing to do with the sheriff, admitted in an interview with commission staff and in an affidavit that he “had not prepared or filed a written report of any kind.” ”On the issue.
The Gonzalez family denied the accusation and co-operated in the commission’s investigation.
Lankford said the ICE National Council, which had a contentious relationship with the Obama administration when Biden was vice president, and the Federal Police Foundation drew his attention to the indictment.
Gonzalez said he had been considering withdrawing his nomination for months, but did not want to leave until the investigation clarified him and his family.
“I feel justified,” Gonzalez, 53, said in an interview Monday, citing the commission’s findings.
He said that as a Mexican American grandson of immigrants whose families grew up in poverty, the nomination was “the honor of a lifetime.” Eventually, he said, he felt he no longer wanted to wait for the Senate to confirm it.
His supporters said it was disappointing to watch Gonzalez fight the baseless allegations.
“It’s unfair to everyone involved,” said Jason Spencer, a former sheriff’s office spokesman, noting that the ICE has no Senate-confirmed leader since the Obama administration. “This is such a critical role and it is not in anyone’s best interest to be distracted from dysfunctional politics.
The White House issued a statement praising Gonzalez on Monday.
“Sheriff Gonzalez has the qualifications and the experience to do this important job and would be a great leader at ICE,” the White House said in a statement.
ICE is struggling to find support under Biden, who has unsuccessfully tried to persuade Congress to pass an immigration bill to legalize the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants, and has tried to limit immigration arrests to recent passers-by. border and people who pose a threat to public safety.
The Biden administration’s administration hit the agency this month when U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton in Texas, appointed by Trump, released Homeland Security policy that seeks to save most undocumented immigrants from custody. Since Biden took office, immigration arrests inside the United States have plummeted, but Tipton’s decision to overturn DHS’s policy raises questions about how the agency will operate in the future. DHS has stated that it “strongly disagrees” with the decision and will appeal.
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