As Senate With confirmation hearings underway for several of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet picks, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is especially eager to have former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed as the nation’s top law enforcement officer.
“Pam Bondi did a great job at the confirmation hearing,” Cruz told Fox News Digital in an interview Thursday. “She’s going to be confirmed. She’s going to be the next state attorney. And I believe, actually, every one of the Trump the candidates for the cabinet will be confirmed.”
Cruz said Bondi, who also served as Trump’s personal attorney, “may be the single most important Cabinet nominee that President Trump has put forward.”
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Senator Ted Cruz says he is confident Bondi will follow through on his promise to investigate missing migrant children in the US (Fox News Digital/Getty)
“The reason for that is under Joe Biden, tragically, we’ve seen the Department of Justice politicized and weaponized in a way that has no precedent in the history of our nation as they turned the Department of Justice and FBI into an arsenal to hunt down the president’s political enemies,” Cruz said.
During Bondi’s hearing Wednesday, Cruz asked her if she would investigate the thousands of missing migrant children who entered the United States.
Bondi replied, “Yes, Senator.”
Asked if he was confident she would do so if confirmed, Cruz said, “I am.”
“These were unaccompanied minors, girls, boys who came into this country and were in the custody of the federal government, and the federal government turned them over to adults,” Cruz said. “Many adults were not relatives, and now they have lost them. They don’t know where they are.”
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Pam Bondi, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department as attorney general, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a confirmation hearing, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (Ben Curtis/The Associated Press)
Republican lawmakers have been critical of the Biden administration’s handling of the illegal immigrant crisis over the past four years.
Shortly after Trump’s election victory in November, House Republicans irked Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra over the administration’s process used to vet sponsors.
Speaking before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security and Enforcement, Becerra testified about his department’s Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is charged with the care and placement of unaccompanied migrant children.
Members of the Republican subcommittee accused the Biden administration of rushing migrant children outside HHS oversight and into the hands of unvetted sponsors, who sometimes exploited and abused them.
Cruz said he also asked Trump’s pick for HHS secretary, RFK Jr., to conduct an investigation into missing migrant children, “because we have an obligation,” he said.
“These were children in custody government,” Cruz said. “We have an obligation to go and protect those children.”
Migrants queue in front of the re-issuing center for migrant tickets at St. Brigid on E. 7th St. on Friday, January 5, 2024 in New York. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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Bondi has secured the support of current and former attorneys general across the country, as well as more than 100 former top Justice Department officials. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on her nomination in the coming days.
If the committee approves the nomination, the full Senate will schedule a vote to confirm her appointment. Although the exact date of the final confirmation vote has not been announced, it is expected to be within the next two weeks.
Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
