'He's making us all proud': Harris County sheriff participates in U.S. Senate confirmation hearings

Watching a Texas native in U.S. Senate confirmation hearings last week was a thing to be proud of, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said in a social media post.

Hidalgo said she watched Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez's confirmation hearings as President Joe Biden's choice to head up a controversial federal agency.

"Loved seeing @SheriffEd_HCSO in his Senate confirmation hearing today," Hidalgo said in a July 15 Twitter post. "He's making us all proud."

That same day, Gonzalez testified before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee pending his nomination to become an assistant secretary of Homeland Security and to head the U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE). Gonzalez fielded questions for about two hours, including about his 2017 decision to end a Harris County program that transferred undocumented immigrants to federal authorities.

Gonzalez told senators that ICE remains a presence in the Harris County Jail and that his department continues to collaborate with the federal agency.

Senators also asked about Gonzalez’s past comments about ICE, which he has not kept to himself over the years.

“I do not support #ICERaids that threaten to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, the vast majority of whom do not represent a threat to the U.S.,” Gonzalez said in a July 12, 2019 Twitter post. “The focus should always be on clear and immediate safety threats. Not others who are not threats.”

If his confirmation goes through, Gonzalez will become the first ICE director to be approved by the U.S. Senate in more than four years.

Gonzalez, a Houston native, has been Harris County's 30th sheriff since he was elected to the post Nov. 8, 2016, according to his bio on the department's website.

He previously served on the Houston Police Department, from which he retired in 2009, and he was elected to three terms on Houston City Council, representing District H, which included time as vice mayor pro-tem and mayor pro-tem. He has chaired the Houston City Council’s Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee.

Harris County Sheriff’s Department is the largest such office in the state of Texas and the third largest nationwide, employing about 5,000 in a county of 4.5 million residents.