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Eugene

(62,646 posts)
Thu Nov 15, 2018, 01:30 PM Nov 2018

Trump's nominee to lead ICE, Ronald Vitiello, defends controversial agency at confirmation hearing

Source: Washington Post

Trump’s nominee to lead ICE, Ronald Vitiello, defends controversial agency at confirmation hearing

By Maria Sacchetti November 15 at 10:31 AM

Ronald D. Vitiello, President Trump’s pick to run Immigration and Customs Enforcement, headed into a Senate confirmation hearing Thursday presenting himself as a career law-enforcement official willing to reach out to both parties amid rising concerns about the agency’s budget and conditions inside its jails.

Vitiello, a 30-year Border Patrol veteran, is ICE’s acting director. Trump tapped him in August to replace Thomas D. Homan, an outspoken leader whose nomination languished for months despite Republican control of the Senate.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, whose tenure in the administration may be nearing its end, named Vitiello acting director in June, calling him “an experienced and well-respected career law enforcement officer who will be a strong advocate for the agency’s workforce.”

Vitiello has kept a lower profile than Homan, a lightning rod who praised Trump for taking the “handcuffs” off ICE and for rescinding policies that let millions of immigrants skirt deportation.

He reached out to Republicans and Democrats alike ahead of Thursday’s hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and produced letters of recommendation from other career law enforcement officials, including R. Gil Kerlikowske, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner under former president Barack Obama.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/immigration/trumps-nominee-to-lead-ice-ronald-vitiello-faces-senate-confirmation-hearing/2018/11/14/2edcb38e-e830-11e8-a939-9469f1166f9d_story.html
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