Sheriff Ed Gonzalez withdraws from consideration as ICE chief

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez has withdrawn from consideration to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he confirmed Monday afternoon. Gonzalez’s withdrawal comes 14 months after President Joe Biden first nominated him to lead ICE. “It’s taken far too long,” Gonzalez said Monday. “It’s in best interest of myself, my family, the country and the residents of Harris County that elected me to serve as sheriff to remove myself from further consideration and remain in place as sheriff.” Gonzalez’ nomination surprised some, in part because in 2017 he’d ended a controversial partnership with ICE that had allowed sheriff’s deputies to screen jailed suspects to find those in the country without legal permission — and later declined to cooperate with an ICE operation in 2019 to arrest large numbers of immigrant families living without legal permission in Houston and other large cities.

Biden first nominated Gonzalez in April 2021. He faced a tense reception from Senate Republicans later that year, ultimately promising not to abolish the partnership he’d scrapped in Harris County in which local law enforcement agencies screen jailed suspects to identify people unauthorized to be in the country. His nomination hit another speed bump earlier this year after U.S. Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, raised an unsubstantiated allegation of domestic abuse lodged against Gonzalez several years ago. White House officials stood by Gonzalez, ultimately renominating him for the post earlier this year after his unconfirmed nomination expired at the end of 2021. Gonzalez said Monday that he decided to give investigators from the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs time to review the domestic abuse allegation, which had first been detailed in an affidavit from Fredrick Portis, a former Houston Community College police officer. Portis had initially said he was called to HCC Chancellor Cesar Maldonado’s office to interview Dr. Melissa Gonzalez — then an HCC employee — regarding an allegation of domestic violence against her husband. Portis had said he’d he attempted to interview her, but that her boss hadn’t allowed her to speak.