“Gonzalez’s decision to terminate the county’s participation in 287(g)”—a deeply flawed program allowing local law enforcement to act as federal immigration agents—“and his past comments condemning the Trump-era ICE, make Republicans wary of his nomination,” Houston Public Media reported.

But it’s immigrant and civil rights advocates who were left deeply worried following Gonzalez’s June hearing, where he said it wouldn’t be his intent to end 287(g), Roll Call reported at the time. Sheriff candidates have campaigned on ending harmful 287(g) agreements in their counties and won. During his campaign, “President Biden pledged to end all 287(g) agreements made by the Trump administration,” Immigration Impact noted last year.

In what should also be a matter for further worry, insurrectionist Josh Hawley noted during Gonzalez’s June hearing that he was “heartened” by the responses he was hearing. “I appreciate your answers, sheriff,” Hawley said according to Roll Call. “I think they do put you in significant tension with this administration’s policies. I’m personally fine with that.” I’m sure he is.

American Civil Liberties Union Senior Policy Counsel Naureen Shah said at the time that “Gonzalez seemed more interested in placating anti-immigrant politicians on the committee than laying out a vision for reform.” She said it “was a huge missed opportunity to make it clear to immigrant families and communities that the Biden administration is truly committed to making a decisive break from the Trump administration’s racist and anti-immigrant policies.”

ICE is entering a new year with the same negligent policies that have added hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 infections to the national caseload. Citing the quickly spreading omicron variant, advocates are renewing their calls for the release of immigrants from federal immigration detention, which officials have every ability to do.

There are already some worrying signs on the horizon. “There are 499 ICE detainees who have tested positive for COVID-19 and are currently being monitored by detention staff, per latest government data,” BuzzFeed News’ Hamed Aleaziz tweeted on Tuesday. “That number was at 285 just yesterday.”

The Senate did confirm Biden’s nominee to head Customs and Border Protection late last year by a 50-47 vote. ICE’s most recent Senate-confirmed director was Sarah Saldaña, who served under the Obama administration from 2014 to 2017. All subsequent ICE directors installed under Obama’s successor served in an acting capacity. Among them was Matthew Albence, who once compared migrant family jails to “summer camps.” But when asked during a congressional hearing if he’d send his own family members to one of these “summer camps,” he refused to directly answer. 

Another former acting director, Mark Morgan, joined designated hate group FAIR. Morgan once claimed during a Fox News interview with white supremacist sympathizer Tucker Carlson that he could look deep into the eyes of an asylum-seeking child in U.S. custody and tell if they’d become a gang member. The former president’s final acting director, Tae Johnson, continues to serve in that role under Biden. 

National Immigrant Justice Center Director of Policy Heidi Altman said last year that should he be confirmed, advocates hope Gonzalez will “work with communities to reimagine an approach to immigration enforcement that respects human rights.”