12/18/2014
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Sarah Saldaña, as the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the first Hispanic woman to head that office.
In a 55-39 vote, Saldaña was approved to become the nation’s top immigration official and preside over U.S. deportation policy, along with other areas, which will be a key administration role in the coming months.
Immigration is one of the pitched battles being fought between the Democratic and Republican parties, especially after President Barack Obama last month took executive action to temporarily protect from deportation more than five million undocumented foreigners living in the United States.
Republicans are threatening to fight with all the tools at their disposal against what they call “amnesty” for foreigners illegally in this country and they will control both houses of Congress starting in January as a result of the Democratic rout in the midterm elections.
Saldaña’s confirmation was one of those that Democrats had worked hard to get in the last days of the lame-duck session, during which time they retain control of the Senate, the chamber of Congress tasked with approving presidential nominations.
Saldaña, 62, in 2011 became the first Latina to become a U.S. attorney in Texas and is currently on Attorney General Eric Holder’s advisory committee.
ICE, which has 20,000 employees around the world, has been without a director for more than a year after John Morton left the post in July 2013.
Saldaña describes herself as a “third-generation American” and says that her mother made her into what she is today despite the fact that she grew up in a humble home with six siblings.
Thanks to a failed congressional maneuver by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who wanted to force a vote on the constitutionality of Obama’s immigration measures, Democrats took advantage of the extra time in the extraordinary weekend session of Congress to get more confirmations done than had been expected.
On Monday, the Senate confirmed Vivek Murthy in the post of surgeon general, the nation’s top health official, a nomination that Obama had made in July 2013 when Regina Benjamin resigned due to the opposition of the National Rifle Association to her activism in favor of gun control.
source
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Sarah Saldaña, as the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the first Hispanic woman to head that office.In a 55-39 vote, Saldaña was approved to become the nation’s top immigration official and preside over U.S. deportation policy, along with other areas, which will be a key administration role in the coming months.
Immigration is one of the pitched battles being fought between the Democratic and Republican parties, especially after President Barack Obama last month took executive action to temporarily protect from deportation more than five million undocumented foreigners living in the United States.
Republicans are threatening to fight with all the tools at their disposal against what they call “amnesty” for foreigners illegally in this country and they will control both houses of Congress starting in January as a result of the Democratic rout in the midterm elections.
Saldaña’s confirmation was one of those that Democrats had worked hard to get in the last days of the lame-duck session, during which time they retain control of the Senate, the chamber of Congress tasked with approving presidential nominations.
Saldaña, 62, in 2011 became the first Latina to become a U.S. attorney in Texas and is currently on Attorney General Eric Holder’s advisory committee.
ICE, which has 20,000 employees around the world, has been without a director for more than a year after John Morton left the post in July 2013.
Saldaña describes herself as a “third-generation American” and says that her mother made her into what she is today despite the fact that she grew up in a humble home with six siblings.
Thanks to a failed congressional maneuver by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who wanted to force a vote on the constitutionality of Obama’s immigration measures, Democrats took advantage of the extra time in the extraordinary weekend session of Congress to get more confirmations done than had been expected.
On Monday, the Senate confirmed Vivek Murthy in the post of surgeon general, the nation’s top health official, a nomination that Obama had made in July 2013 when Regina Benjamin resigned due to the opposition of the National Rifle Association to her activism in favor of gun control.
source
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