Biden taps Texas sheriff Ed Gonzalez to oversee deportations and immigration arrests as ICE director

President Biden on Tuesday nominated the sheriff of Texas' most populous county to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), charging him with the formidable task of reforming an agency whose work has come under withering criticism from progressives.

If confirmed by the Senate, Ed Gonzalez, the Harris County sheriff, would lead thousands of officers charged with arresting and deporting unauthorized immigrants, and with operating the sprawling U.S. immigration detention system, which is the largest in the world. Since its inception in 2002, ICE's work under Democratic and Republican administrations has become a focal issue in the polarizing debate over immigration policy in the U.S. Criticism of ICE intensified during the Trump administration, which gave the agency broader discretion to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants, including those without criminal records.