The Senate has voted to confirm Sarah Saldana as the assistant secretary in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Department of Homeland Security, The Hill reported Tuesday.
Ramsey Cox reports that Saldana, who will enforce President Barack Obama’s decision to grant undocumented U.S. immigrants with work visas, is the first Hispanic woman to lead ICE.
“We’re talking about filling a big [leadership] gap,” said Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which had confirmed Saldana in November.
“It’s an agency that has been without a Senate-appointed leader for 16 months.”
The report said the Senate is also set to confirm Obama’s deputy national security adviser Antony Blinken as deputy secretary of state at the State Department.
