UPDATE (9:04 p.m.): Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who is a close friend of Thomas Saenz, says he was offered the AAG spot for the Civil Rights Division and accepted, but he was told on Thursday that the White House was going with Perez instead. Molina accuses the White House of seeking to avoid a controversial nomination process, where immigration would figure prominently. "It was a political decision from the White House, because of Tom’s work on immigration rights,” she says.
Before joining Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s staff in 2005, Saenz (Yale Law) was a top lawyer for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where he handled cases over affirmative action, educational equity, employment discrimination, immigrants' rights, language rights, and day laborers' rights. Molina, who sits on MALDF's board, says, "Our community needs advocacy, and for Tom to be treated in this kind of way speaks volumes of the lack of courage of the administration."
But, as many have pointed out, Perez also has a background steeped in immigration issues. He was on the board of directors of Casa de Maryland, a non-profit immigrant assistance organization, from 1995 to 2002. Perez served as the board's president in his final year, before successfully running for a spot on the Montgomery County Council. (Perez was also rumored to be Obama's pick to head Citizenship and Immigration Services, before he got the nod for Civil Rights.)
The White House has not responded to requests for comment, but we'll post as soon as it does.
UPDATE (7:52 p.m.): We caught up with Thomas Saenz. "My legal career has been devoted to protecting the people's civil and constitutional rights," Saenz said. "Given my background, I believe there is nothing more important than the pivotal role of the Justice Department in civil rights enforcement." Saenz said he was "very much interested" in working at the federal level, but he wished Holder and Perez success. He declined to discuss reports that he had been offered the AAG position.
President Barack Obama today nominated Tom Perez, Maryland’s labor secretary, to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Perez, who oversaw large chunks of the transition, including matters at Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services, is one of the last pieces of the DOJ puzzle. The department's No. 2 and No. 3 officials were sworn in today, and Obama has announced the nominees for most of the major DOJ components, save for the office of Legal Policy, Office of Legislative Affairs, the Tax Division, and the Environmental and Natural Resources Division.
Perez's name surfaced early as a candidate for the position, but sources involved in the transition told The BLT in January that Obama was leaning towards Thomas Saenz, counsel to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and a former top lawyer for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. (Saenz could not be reached for comment.)
Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. has said reinvigorating the Civil Rights Division is among his highest priorities. The division was wracked by allegations of politically motivated hiring during the Bush administration, and critics have said the division strayed from it traditional role of traditional role of protecting minority voters and workers rights.
As head of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, Perez enforces workplace safety and other worker protection laws, as well as a wide range of consumer rights laws. Prior to his current post, Perez (Harvard Law) was the first Latino member of the Montgomery County Council, serving from 2002 to 2006, including a year as council president.
Early in his career, Perez was federal prosecutor in the Civil Rights Division and later served as a deputy in the division under Attorney General Janet Reno. He has also worked on the Hill, as a special counsel to Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) on civil rights, criminal justice, and constitutional issues.
He is a part-time professor at the George Washington School of Public Health.
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Sarah
http://www.lyricsdigs.com
Posted by: Sarah | March 21, 2009 at 08:47 AM
nice psych--illegal activity plus far left? try illegal activity and far right.
Posted by: ms | March 17, 2009 at 02:57 PM
I never trusted Obama's commitment to Latinos.
I am not saying that McCain would have appointed Saenz, but at least he would have been straight about his actions. Obama said one thing to Latinos through-out the campaign and then turned around and has done the opposite behind our backs.
Tom is not getting appointed because he's too "pro-immigrant."
Obama wants to have his cake and eat it too. He's like that slick date who will tell you everything you want to hear and then the next day you wake and you're like...dude, I was PLAYED.
This story will get lost under the weight of the AIG drama, but the Latino political community will remember: "Yo me acuerdo."
All the gains Obama may have made in the Latino community are totally being jeopordized. Once you piss off Janet Murguia, good luck. You can chock it up to "politics" but at the end of the day, Obama is not willing to go to the mat for Latinos.
The NCLR press release is interesting: http://www.nclr.org/content/news/detail/56284/
Posted by: A Legal Latina | March 17, 2009 at 11:36 AM
It might be helpful to note that Perez is linked to a far-left group in Maryland that strongly supports illegal activity:
http://24ahead.com/s/thomas-perez
Posted by: NoMoreBlatherDotCom | March 16, 2009 at 01:55 PM