SocraticGadfly: ICE-ing Ed Gonzalez

April 28, 2021

ICE-ing Ed Gonzalez

USA Today reminds us, with Status Quo Joe nominating Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez to run ICE, that even though Gonzalez criticized Trump's immigration policies, as of 2019, he honored ICE 48-hour detainers more than any other sheriff in the USofA. Yeah, the AP says it was "in accordance with Texas law," but, you know, that was after Lina Hidalgo became county judge. Harris County could have had Gonzalez simply stop arresting fewer people for Class C misdemeanors, like the city of San Antonio, and thus avoiding the worst of the 2017 Lege's SB 4. It's true that Kenny Boy Paxton sued over that. It's also true that, as of two months ago, two and a half years after the spavined grifter filed the suit, it's still ongoing.

So, in other words, whether as formally as the city of San Antonio or not, Harris County (along with Dallas County and Travis County, and Austin, Dallas, etc.) could be doing and could have done some slow-walking vis-a-vis SB4.

That all said? That's not news to some of us in Tex-ass who know it was a partial contributor to Harris County Jail overcrowding.

But, it's not the only factor, as my Janis Joplin-fueled paean to Ed's jail overcrowding, inspired by Grits, makes clear. Among other factors is Ed's lockstep marching with anti-pergressuve Harris DA Kim Ogg on opposing everything even close to bail reform.

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