Bush Immigration Pick Criticized

Newsmax | September 22, 2005 | Newsmax

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Julie Myers is 36 years old, a lawyer and a political appointee to the Bush administration with limited executive experience.

Yet, she is slated to become head of one of the nation's most critical security-related agencies, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The Myers appointment, in the wake of FEMA's disastrous handling of the Katrina Hurricane and the resignation of its chief, Michael Brown, has people from both sides of the political aisle raising hackles.

"The Bush administration has barely rebounded from the resignation of horse show organizer Michael ‘Heck of a job' Brown from FEMA, and yet is pushing forward with the nomination of another inexperienced bureaucrat to a key post at the Department of Homeland Security," conservative syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin railed in an article out this week.

Despite the obvious résumé problems, the Bush administration is not likely to back down on the appointment.

Myers' uncle is none other than the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard B. Myers.

And Myers' husband is DHS chief Michael Chertoff's current chief of staff, John F. Wood.

Great contacts, but "what exactly are the 36-year-old lawyer's main credentials to solve ... dire national security problems?" asks Malkin in her op-head piece.

"Zip, Nada, Nil," answers Malkin.

Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill are also worried that tapping the relatively inexperienced Myers may engender down the pike another debacle like that of Katrina fall-guy Michael D. Brown, the recently resigned head of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

At a Senate hearing last week, rumblings over Myers were apparent, according to the Washington Post, with Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, at one point baldly concluding that Myers' résumé indicated that she is "not qualified for the position."

Voinovich further announced at the time that he wanted to meet with Chertoff to discuss Myers' qualifications. "I'd really like to have him spend some time with us, telling us personally why he thinks you're qualified for the job..."

Part of that highly scrutinized résumé indicates that Julie L. Myers was nominated by President Bush on June 26, 2003, and confirmed by the Senate on October 17, 2003, to serve as the assistant secretary for Export Enforcement at the Department of Commerce.

During her brief tenure in her Commerce position, Myers was responsible for developing and coordinating the Department's efforts to prevent, and where necessary, sanction violations of U.S. dual-use export control laws and the anti-boycott provisions of the Export Administration Act.

She also managed Commerce Special Agents who work at eight field offices in the United States, and oversaw the Export Enforcement's international attache program.

At Commerce, Myers oversaw just 170 federal employees and managed a budget of $25 million. In her new job heading up ICE, Myers will be expected to manage more than 20,000 employees and a $4 billion budget.

The White House has been emphasizing that Myers' role in sanctioning violations of U.S. dual-use export control laws and the anti-boycott provisions of the Export Administration Act represents solid law enforcement experience.

As Erin Healy, a White House spokeswoman, told the Washington Post: "She's well-known and respected throughout the law enforcement community ... She has a proven track record as an effective manager."

Prior to joining the Department of Commerce, Myers served as the chief of staff of the Criminal Division for then-assistant attorney general Michael Chertoff at the Department of Justice.

Before that, she served as the deputy assistant secretary for Money Laundering and Financial Crimes at the Department of Treasury. She also worked as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of New York and as an Associate Independent Counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel for Kenneth W. Starr.

"I realize that I'm not 80 years old," Myers testified recently on Capitol Hill. "I have a few gray hairs, more coming, but I will seek to work with those who are knowledgeable in this area, who know more than I do."

Malkin couldn't let that nugget slide without comment: "Please, spare us the not-so-clever rejoinders about age and wisdom. Reagan could pull them off. Myers can't. Why hire someone who needs to ‘seek to work' with those ‘who know more than I do' in order to her job?"

After Sept. 11, Immigration, then a Justice Dept. agency, was heavily criticized for failing to stop many of the al Qaida hijackers from entering the U.S. or having them deported, as many of them were here illegally.

Malkin says Myers' appointment in light of Sept. 11 is worrisome.

"Myers may be perfectly capable of writing legal briefs and organizing policy conferences," Malkin writes. "I'm sure her knowledge of export controls is second to none. But as long as the borders are broken and al Qaida continues to exploit lax immigration enforcement, she has no business heading ICE - or any other DHS agency."

The head of ICE is required by statute to have at least five years of experience in both law enforcement and management. That requirement alone spells a world of difference between Myers and Brown, the latter having joined FEMA with no experience in disaster preparedness.

But the experience factor aside, Myers has yet another headache in the works. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., is threatening to use legislative delaying tactics against Myers' nomination - until he receives a secret FBI memo about terror suspect interrogations that he's been seeking for months, according to the Associated Press.

At the heart of Levin's issue is a heavily abridged May 2004 e-mail from FBI agents seeking guidance about questioning terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay.

As far back as February, Democratic senators were asking for an unedited version of the memo to see if it mentioned or involved Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who headed the Justice Department's criminal division from 2001 to 2003.

However, the Justice Department has consistently nixed the request, saying the memos contain "information covered by the Privacy Act," and had nothing to do with Chertoff.

Myers was Chertoff's chief of staff at the time.

[Perdogg]

So Gen Tommy Franks would be unqualified for this position?

[VideoDoctor]

Julie Myers is Julie Myers... she will ONLY reflect and carry out what the ADMINISTRATION wants to happen in the area of "illegal immigration".

She's young, nice looking, and she's General Meyer's daughter. Turn her loose.. let's see what she can do.

Anything would be an inprovement.

[flashbunny]

do you want to answer the question of her qualifications, or lack thereof, or do you want to try another distraction from the real issue?

[tennmountainman]

Well, if a political appointee is what Bush wanted why did he replace Brown with an actual seasoned veteran named Peterson, who is currently running FEMA. And actually has EXPERIENCE Why did he not replace Brown with another in experienced Appointee? I'll tell you why. Americans will not be satisfied with political appointees(WITH NO EXPERIENCE) running extremely important departments after 9/11.

[Southack]

"Its her job to fill openings for bush's admin?"

There are some losers who go through their entire lives doing one thing: whining.

Those people are incapable of offering positive, proactive potential solutions to problems.

That type of person goes through life hoping that everyone else **fails**. They know how to do one thing: criticize.

They are one dimensional. Day in and day out they spew forth their negativity. They want failure and they offer criticism.

The 98% "rest" of the world eventually tires of such people; their 15 minutes of fame inevitably fades, leaving that 2% with nothing but lives of misery and despair and hate-filled rants.

Yawn. That sort of anti-intellectual drivel bores me.

Offer positive, proactive solutions. If you can't do that, then you have no business criticizing leadership decisions. You certainly have no business leading people.

Endless criticism alone has no value. The most moronic, least intelligent humans can criticize.

But if a leadership decision was truly "bad," then that implies that some other decision would have been better. If so, then it only makes sense to suggest that solution out loud, in public, prior to the event in question.

A person incapable of articulating such an improved leadership decision is actually admitting that they really couldn't have done better **except** with the benefit of hindsight...a gift that no current leader will ever have (by definition). And at some point, endless, mindless, suggestionless criticism amounts to nothing more than AGITPROP.

Don't go there.

[Non-Sequitur]

What gives Malkin the moral and scholastic authority to question Myer's qualifications?

What qualifications?

[chicagolady]

Press Release-for immediate release


Chicago, IL

September 22, 2005



Minutemen host Chicago summit on national security and illegal immigration



The Chicago Minuteman Project will host the “America First: Summit on National Security” on Saturday, October 15, 2005 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Minorities and immigrants are among the leaders who will speak at the summit held at the Christian Liberty Academy, 502 W. Euclid Ave., in Arlington Heights, IL.



Co-founders of the Chicago Minuteman Project, Rosanna Pulido and Rick Bieseda, were among the original group of Minutemen to patrol the Arizona border in April, 2005. They were the first to establish a Minuteman group in a non-border state where the emphasis is on holding employers and politicians accountable for obeying immigration laws.



Indicative of the multi-ethnic mix of speakers, Rosanna Pulido is an American of Mexican descent. Her background includes working on the Alan Keyes Campaign as his 2nd Amendment coordinator. She was the organizer for Rally for America March 22, 2003 in Chicago.



Rick Bieseda, served in Vietnam as a Marine and hosts the weekly talk show “Perspectives on Our Heritage” on WJJG 1530 AM. He is the author of The Angry White Male and the Horse he Rode in On and writes columns for the Federal Observer.



Speaker Yeh Ling-Ling is a naturalized American citizen who was born in Vietnam to Chinese parents. Prior to founding Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America, she spent 10 years working for immigration law firms.



Carl “Two Feathers” Whitaker of the Tennessee Volunteer Minutemen, is of American Indian descent. He is running for Governor of Tennessee.



Descended from slaves and American Indians, Terry Anderson bills himself as the Prisoner of South Central on his all-immigration radio talk show on KRLA in Los Angeles.



Long before the Governors of NM and AZ declared states of emergency due to problems caused by illegal aliens, County Commissioner Robert Vasquez, a Hispanic American, sought to declare Canyon County, Idaho a disaster area due to strains caused by illegal aliens. He is now running for Congress.



These multi-ethnic speakers have one thing in common. They are “Americans first.” They will address the numerous ways illegal immigration threatens our national security.







For more information and details on tickets and speakers, call Rick Bieseda or Rosanna Pulido at 847-626-7818. You may also check the website at www.ChicagoMinutemanProject.com

---

[Black Tooth]

There are some losers who go through their entire lives doing one thing: whining.

You got it. These anti big gov people are all the same.

[Southack]

"You got it. These anti big gov people are all the same."

People who want our government to better enforce our immigration laws (look at the title for this thread) are people who want government doing MORE, not less.

If those same people claim to be "anti big gov" then they are confused and simply don't yet quite realize that they've selected conflicting priorities.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Yeah. Let's look on the bright side. She's pretty...

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

What you say???

[Black Tooth]

People who want our government to better enforce our immigration laws (look at the title for this thread) are people who want government doing MORE, not less.

I had to wait for the spin to slow down before I could read this.

Are we not paying dearly in taxes for the government to control and secure the borders and enforce immigration laws, which they are clearly not doing? Don't know about you, but they are taking many thousands of dollars from me.

If they are not going to do their job, I'd like my taxes reduced substantially.

[Southack]

People who want our government to better enforce our immigration laws (look at the title for this thread) are people who want government doing MORE, not less. - Southack

"I had to wait for the spin to slow down before I could read this." - Black Tooth

What part of the above are you having trouble reading?

[Black Tooth]

Are we not paying dearly in taxes for the government to control and secure the borders and enforce immigration laws, which they are clearly not doing? Don't know about you, but they are taking many thousands of dollars from me.

If they are not going to do their job, I'd like my taxes reduced substantially.

[Black Tooth]

What part of the above are you having trouble reading?

[jeremiah]

I actually was trying to make sure I could find this thread another time, and I hit some letters then sent. My low expectations of public officials is constantly being met or surpassed.