AS if allowing our border o be overrun by tens of thousands of illegal aliens flooding in unlawfully each month, having to open 13 overflow facilities and spend $60 million per week housing unaccompanied migrant children, and importing more COVID-infected persons while busing illegal alien families into the interior of the United State without even so much as a notice to appear in court weren’t all bad enough, now, President Joe Biden has tapped an anti-border security sheriff with a record of protecting criminal aliens from deportation to head up U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
If Biden gets his way in the Senate, ICE, which hasn’t had a permanent director since the Obama administration, will be lead by Ed Gonzalez, a Harris County, Texas sheriff, who “in 2017 ended his Texas county’s participation in the 287(g) program, which trained local officers to help flag deportable migrants and to begin the deportation process in coordination with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” per the Washington Times.
The program, established under federal law passed by Congress, allowed certain local and state law enforcement officers to be deputized to help enforce federal immigration law.
The Washington Times also notes Gonzalez was a vocal advocate of Texas’ sanctuary city law that required state and local law enforcement agencies to fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities, including honoring immigration detainers for criminal aliens to allow them to be transferred into ICE custody upon release from jail, or face legal action from the attorney general’s office.
At the time, Gonzalez accused the law of creating a “climate of fear and suspicion” in immigrant neighborhoods.
He's also been a major opponent of many Trump-era immigration policies including "ICE raids" to round up illegal aliens, particularly those with criminal records. Gonzalez has suggested that most illegal aliens do not represent a threat" in the U.S.
DHS Director Andrew Mayorkas, who has so far touted the Biden administration’s weak line that the record surge at the Southwest U.S. border is not, in fact, a crisis, said Gonzalez “is well-suited to lead ICE as the agency advances our public safety and homeland security mission.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki echoed that sentiment Tuesday from the briefing room.
“Certainly we encourage the Senate to not only consider, but to confirm qualified nominees. We certainly consider him one of them,” she said. “The president looks forward to having someone in place in this position, and [the announcement] certainly indicates a priority that we put it out today.”