President Biden’s pick to lead ICE faced new hurdles this week as the labor union for deportation officers accused Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez of calling whistleblowers liars when he discounted their tales of being blocked from enforcing immigration law.
National ICE Council President Chris Crane said in a letter to senators on Monday that Sheriff Gonzalez’s quick dismissal of complaints from within his future workforce “lead us to believe that we’re getting yet another partisan political operative to lead the agency, not a director who truly cares about public safety and the employees he is entrusted to lead.”
Though arrests and deportations have plummeted, Sheriff Gonzalez, who hasn’t served at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told senators during his confirmation hearing in May that he doesn’t believe the agency’s employees who say they are being hindered from enforcing the law.
“I do not believe it’s true,” he said.
The ICE Council, which represents the officers, said that’s a bad start for a man looking to lead the agency, and said senators must get more clarity from the sheriff before voting on his nomination.
“We’re tired of getting the corrupt, dishonest and incompetent as our bosses, so we’re simply asking the Senate to do their jobs and properly vet this nominee to ensure he’s going to enforce the law and act with integrity if confirmed,” Mr. Crane told The Washington Times.
A first vote is scheduled Wednesday for the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, but the ICE union said it shouldn’t happen until Sheriff Gonzalez explains why he discounted officers’ concerns.
“To state publicly, at a Senate hearing no less, that the law enforcement officers he asks senators to entrust him with leading, are being untruthful with the public, when he has no basis whatsoever for making such a judgement, is extremely concerning to us,” Mr. Crane wrote.
He also wanted answers about Sheriff Gonzalez’s relationship with a company that brings wealthy immigrants — mostly Chinese — to the U.S. on the EB-5 investor visa. Sheriff Gonzalez took a trip to China in 2015 that was funded by Houston EB5, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
The Beacon also reported that Sheriff Gonzalez received campaign contributions from advocates of the EB-5 program, a highly controversial visa that has spawned a series of criminal fraud cases.
The ICE Council said the allegations against Sheriff Gonzalez were concerning because they echoed worries over Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who according to a scathing inspector general’s report in 2015 intervened to help politically connected investors obtain EB-5 visas.
Mr. Crane said he makes “no allegation of wrongdoing” against Sheriff Gonzalez, but said, given the concerns over EB-5 visas, the nominee must be pressed on whether he’s tainted.
Mr. Crane pointed to a comment by Sheriff Gonzalez during his confirmation hearing earlier this month where he said ICE needed to target its enforcement efforts because otherwise it risked arresting a migrant “that may be a business owner.”
That came in response to a question from Sen. James Lankford, Oklahoma Republican. Sheriff Gonzalez said he was worried about “collateral” arrests, when ICE goes after a target but encounters other illegal immigrants — in this case, a business owner.
Mr. Lankford has placed a hold on all Homeland Security nominees, including Sheriff Gonzalez. He says the hold will remain until the Biden team takes concrete steps to secure the border. A hold can be overcome, but it means Democrats would have to invest more time on the Senate floor than might otherwise be expected.
The Washington Times has reached out to several of the senators targeted by the letter, and to Sheriff Gonzalez’s office in Texas for comment.
ICE hasn’t had a confirmed director since the Obama administration. Mr. Trump relied on a series of acting chiefs.
At one point senators were poised to approve one Trump pick in committee, but opposition from the ICE Council and other corners delayed that vote, and the White House got cold feet and withdrew that name.
Leading ICE may be the toughest job in Homeland Security, with left-wing activists calling for the agency’s abolishment and Republicans questioning why the agency appears to be doing so much less on enforcement despite having the same budget.
Mr. Biden looked outside the agency for his nominee, figuring a local law enforcement figure might be able to thread the needle.
But Sheriff Gonzalez came under scrutiny during his confirmation hearing two weeks ago because he canceled Harris County’s cooperative agreement with ICE, scuttling the 287(g) program that had local officers trained to look for and begin deportation proceedings on illegal immigrants booked into the county’s jails.
The sheriff said that was the right decision for his Texas community, but told senators that doesn’t mean he would scrap the program for the dozens of jurisdictions that like it.
“That would not be my intent,” he said.