Thread: New Labor Secretary Pick (La Raza, MALDEF) - R. Alexander Acosta

President Trump will announce his new pick for Labor Secretary at a 12:00 News Conference today. Media is reporting it is R. Alexander Acosta.

Here is a brief description of Mr. Acosta provided during his time with President George W. Bush. He received recognition from MALDEF.

Assistant Attorney General R. Alexander Acosta



R. Alexander Acosta was selected by President Bush to serve as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice on August 22, 2003. The Civil Rights Division is responsible for enforcing federal civil rights statutes, including those statutes that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability, religion, and national origin in education, employment, credit, housing, public accommodations and facilities, voting, and certain federally funded and conducted programs.



Prior to his service as Assistant Attorney General, Mr. Acosta served as a Member of the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB"), an independent federal agency responsible for administering and interpreting the National Labor Relations Act, the principal private-sector national statute regulating labor relations. Mr. Acosta has also served as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division.



A native of Miami, Florida, Mr. Acosta earned his bachelor's degree from Harvard College and his law degree from the Harvard Law School. After graduation, he served as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and then worked at the Washington office of the Kirkland and Ellis law firm, where he specialized in employment and labor issues.



Mr. Acosta is the first Hispanic to serve as an Assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice. He is the 2003 recipient of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund's Excellence in Government Service Award and the DC Hispanic Bar Association's Hugh A. Johnson, Jr. Memorial Award. He has also taught several classes on employment law, disability-based discrimination law, and civil rights law at the George Mason School of Law.

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Return to this article at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/racosta-bio.html

MARCH 29, 2011Civil Rights of Muslim Americans Witnesses testified on discrimination and hate crimes against Muslim Americans. Among the topics they addressed were hate speech, law enforcement practices, anti-Muslim legislative efforts at the state and local level, school bullying, and employment discrimination.


Testimony at Congressional Hearing from Alexander Acosta

Transcript:

AT THIS POINT, PLEASE PROCEED WITH YOUR TESTIMONY. YOUR WRITTEN STATEMENT WILL BE MADE A PART OF THE RECORD. >> THANK YOU. CHAIRMAN DURBIN, SENATOR KYL, GOOD MORNING. I WANT TO THANK YOU FOR HOLDING THIS HEARING AND THANK ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL PEREZ. GENERAL PEREZ MADE AN IMPORTANT POINT THAT THE PROTECTION OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTIES IS A BIPARTISAN ISSUE. MUSLIM-AMERICANS SHOULD TAKE COMFORT IN KNOWING THAT THE EFFORT TO PROTECT RELIGIOUS LIBERTIES HAS BEEN ONGOING SINCE 9/11, HAS TRANSCENDED THE PARTISAN DIVIDE AND I HOPE CONTINUES TO. THE TITLE OF TODAY'S HEARING REFERENCES AMERICAN MUSLIMS. I THOUGHT IT APPROPRIATE TO BEGIN BY DISCUSSING TWO SUCH INDIVIDUALS. THE FIRST IS A STUDENT AT THE LAW SCHOOL WHERE I'M NOW DEAN. HE'S ONE OF THE STUDENT LEADERS AND, IN FACT, IS A CANDIDATE FOR STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT. I ASKED HIM TO SEND AN E-MAIL ABOUT HIMSELF. I WAS GOING TO SUMMARIZE IT, BUT I WILL QUOTE IT IN FULL. I THOUGHT IT MADE A POWERFUL POINT. HE WRITES, I'M A MUSLIM, BORN AND RAISED IN THE UNITED STATES. I SUPPOSE BY MOST STANDARDS MY CHILDHOOD WAS NORMAL. I WENT TOLE SCHOOL, TRIED TO GET OUT OF DOING HOMEWORK AND SPENT TOO MUCH TIME WATCHING TV. THE TRUTH IS I WAS LAZY. BUT THAT CHANGED WHEN I WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL. I ATTENDED ESTERA HIGH SCHOOL WHERE I WAS INTRODUCED TO THE JUNIOR ARMY OFFICER TRAINING PROGRAM. IT TAUGHT ME WHAT IT MEANT TO BE A LAWYER AND WHY IT WAS IMPORTANT TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR MY ACTIONS. I EXCELLED IN THE PROGRAM. I WAS THE FIRST CADET IN MY CLASS TO BE A CADET OFFICER AND EVENTUALLY REACHED CADET LIEUTENANT-GENERAL. WHAT I REMEMBER MOST ABOUT HIGH SCHOOL IS THE CONFUSION, THE FEAR ON 9/11 WHEN OUR TEACHER TURNED ON THE MONITOR IN TIME FOR US TO WATCH THE SECOND PLANE CRASH INTO THE SECOND TOWER OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER. I KNEW MY COUNTRY HAD BEEN ATTACKED. SO I DID WHAT I KNEW WAS RIGHT. FIVE MONTHS LATER I ENLISTED IN THE FLORIDA NATIONAL GUARD. I TRANSFERRED TO REGULAR ACTIVE DUTY ON JULY 27, 2003. IN LATE 2007 I LEFT ACTIVE DUTY TO GO TO LAW SCHOOL. WHILE THE STUDENT'S NAME IS MOHAMMED T.ALSARNI AND HE WAS SELECTED AS ONE OF ONLY 25 FIRST YEAR LAW STUDENTS IN THE NATION TO INTERN FOR THE ARMY JUDGE ADVOCATE CORE. HIS GOAL IS TO BE A J.A.G. OFFICER. I WANT TO TALK ABOUT A YOUNG WOMAN NAMED NASHALA HEARN. SHE TESTIFIED IN 2004. AT THE TIME SHE WAS 11. HER STORY BEGINS IN OKLAHOMA AT THE START OF THE 2003 SCHOOL YEAR. SHE TOLD HER 6th GRADE TEACHER SHE WAS MUSLIM AND WORE A HEAD SCARF AS PART OF HER RELIGION. THE TEACHER DIDN'T OBJECT AT THE TIME. SHE HAPPILY ATTENDED SCHOOL FOR THE NEXT MONTH. IT CHANGED ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2003, WHEN HER TEACHER ASKED HER TO REMOVE HER HEAD SCARF. THE SCHOOL PERMITTED STUDENTS TO WEAR BASEBALL CAPS, AND KIPPAS BUT WANTED HER TO REMOVE THE SCARF BECAUSE IT FRIGHTENED OTHER 6th GRADE STUDENTS. SHE DECLINED AND WAS SENT TO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE. HE INSISTED SHE REMOVE THE HEAD SCARF AND WAS SUSPENDED. I AUTHORIZED THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO INTERVENE. EVENTUALLY SHE WAS PERMITTED TO RETURN TO SCHOOL WEARING HER HEAD SCARF. I SPEAK ABOUT THESE INDIVIDUALS BECAUSE I THINK IT HIGHLIGHTS IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES, CRITICAL PRINCIPLES THAT MAKE OUR NATION GREAT. THE FIRST IS THAT WE ARE ALL AMERICANS. LISTEN TO MR. AL DASARNI'S WORDS. I KNEW THAT MY COUNTRY HAD BEEN ATTACKED SO I DID WHAT WAS RIGHT. FIVE MONTHS LATER I ENLISTED IN THE MILITARY. THE SECOND PRINCIPLE IS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. NASHALA'S OPPORTUNITY WAS A CHANCE FOR A PUBLIC SCHOOL TO TEACH FREEDOM. SCHOOL OFFICIALS COULD HAVE TAKEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO TALK ABOUT AMERICA'S EARLY SETTLERS AND THE SEARCH FOR FREEDOM TO EXPRESS FAITH. SCHOOL OFFICIALS COULD HAVE TAKEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO TEACH BASIC CIVICS WHICH IS OUR NATURE IS STRONG TO ATTACK WITH PERSONAL RESOLVE. THEY TEMPER RESOLVE WITH WISDOM. PRESIDENT BUSH UNDERSTOOD THIS. HE VISITED THE ISLAMIC CENTER OF WASHINGTON TO REMIND A NATION THAT THOSE WHO FEEL THEY CAN INTIMIDATE CITIZENS TO TAKE OUT THEIR ANGER SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THAT BEHAVIOR. PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS UNDERSTOOD THIS AND HAS SPOKEN OUT AS WELL. TEN YEARS LATER AS WE APPROACH THE TEN-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11 I FEEL OBLIGATED TO CONCLUDE BY STATING THE OBVIOUS. AS A NATION WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN THE EVENTS OF TEN YEARS AGO. EMOTIONS REMAIN CHARGED. THIS IS A GOOD TIME, A CRITICAL TIME TO TEMPER OUR RESOLVE WITH WISDOM AND RECALL TO REMAIN TRUE TO OUR AMERICAN IDEALS AND FREEDOMS WE NEED TO ENSURE THAT ALL PEOPLE IN THIS LAND ARE FREE TO PRACTICE THEIR FAITHS WITHOUT FEAR.




https://www.c-span.org/video/?298715...ans&start=5260

Oh! An Hispanic Civil Rights Lawyer .... received a MALDEF Award .... a former G W Bush appointee ..... dean of academia ... well that's certainly the opposite of Andrew Puzder.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Alexander_Acosta

Trump's plan with Puzder was for the Labor Department to become an engine for expediting the re-employment of American Workers. I don't see that capability with this new nominee.

Shame. But Senate will like him, probably be confirmed 100-0.

I don't like this choice at all. Terrible. Amnesty supporter and MALDEF pick for recognition. Swamp fixture.

JANUARY 27, 2012Immigration Policy and the Hispanic Workforce Panelists talked about immigration policy, the U.S. economy, and the impact of national policies on local populations. Among the issues they addressed were unemployment rates, the role of education, and proposals for effective immigration reform. They responded to questions from the audience.


transcript:


NEED INDIVIDUALS THAT ARE WILLING TO USE POLITICAL CAPITAL, AS PRESIDENT BUSH WAS WILLING TO DO, TO TAKE THIS ON AND TO FIND REAL SOLUTIONS THAT ADDRESS BOTH THE ISSUE OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND A PATHWAY TO LEGAL IMMIGRATION. WHEN WE TALK ABOUT IMMIGRATION, IT IS VERY CHARGED EMOTIONALLY. AND FOR ME, IT HARKENS BACK TO PRESIDENT REAGAN. SOME OF MY EARLIEST POLITICAL MEMORIES ARE OF PRESIDENT REAGAN. I WAS A LITTLE KID AND WHAT I REMEMBER ABOUT HIM IS HIS POSITIVISM. HE HAS THIS VISION OF OUR NATION THAT THAT WAS A SHINING CITY UPON A HILL. LATER ON, I WENT BACK AND LOOKED UP WHAT THAT MEANT. I FOUND HIS FAREWELL ADDRESS, HIS FINAL WORDS TO OUR NATION FROM THE OVAL OFFICE IN JANUARY AS HE WAS ABOUT TO LEAVE HIS PRESIDENCY. AND I BROUGHT THEM WITH ME, BECAUSE AT THE BASE SAID A GOOD TONE FOR THIS ISSUE. HE SAID, AND THAT IS ABOUT ALL I HAVE TO SAY FOR TONIGHT, EXCEPT FOR ONE THING. THE PAST FEW DAYS I HAVE BEEN SITTING IN MY WINDOW UPSTAIRS, AND I THOUGHT ABOUT THE SHAGGY THE LESS SHINING CITY UPON THE HELP OF THE PHRASE COMES FROM JOHN WINTHROP, WHO WROTE IT TO DESCRIBE THE AMERICA THAT HE SAW. BUT HE WAS AN EARLY PROGRAM, AND EARLY FREEDOM MEN. HE JOURNEYED HERE IN WHAT TODAY WE CALL A LITTLE WOODEN BOAT. AND LIKE OTHER PROGRAMS, HE WAS LOOKING FOR A HOME THAT WOULD BE FREE. WELL, THE REALITY IS, TODAY WE HAVE PEOPLE JOURNEYING HERE ON A LITTLE WOODEN BOATS OR RAFTS MADE OF TIRES TIED TOGETHER, AND THEY'RE COMING HERE FOR THE EXACT SAME REASON. BECAUSE THEY ARE LOOKING FOR A HOME THAT WILL BE FREE. THAT IS AN EXPERIENCE THAT SO MANY OF US WHO GREW UP HERE IN MIAMI HAVE TWO THAT THERE IS A SECOND SIDE TO THAT WE HAVE TO TAKE ON WHEN WE TALK ABOUT IMMIGRATION, AND THAT IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THAT HAPPENS ILLEGALLY. I WAS A FEDERAL PROSECUTOR IN MIAMI FOR FIVE YEARS. I HAD SOME EXPERIENCES THAT ARE TERRIFIC. I HAD THE PARENTS OF AN 8-YEAR- OLD BOYS SITTING IN MY OFFICE. THE BOY HAD DROWNED COMING FROM CUBA. THEY WERE IN MY OFFICE THANKING ME BECAUSE AT LEAST THEY WERE ABLE TO STAY IN THIS NATION, AND THEY WANTED TO COME BY TO SAY THANK YOU. BECAUSE WE WERE ABLE TO HAVE A FUNERAL MASS FOR OUR SON. WE'RE NOT SURE THAT THE PASSAGE FROM CUBA WAS WORTH HIS LIFE. AS A MATTER OF FACT, WE ARE REALLY CONFUSED RIGHT NOW, BUT AT LEAST WE HAVE FREEDOM. I HAD A CASE WHERE A WOMAN WAS RAPED REPEATEDLY ON HER WAY OVER FROM HAITI, BECAUSE THE SMUGGLERS, THE BOATS, THE COYOTES THAT BROUGHT HER OVER THE VIEWS TURK, AND SHE ALLOWED IT. BECAUSE FOR HER, THAT WAS THE PRICE OF PASSAGE TO OUR NATION. THE COST OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS NOT SIMPLY EXCLUSION, BUT IT IS SAID USE OF THOSE INDIVIDUALS COMING TO OUR NATION, SEEING IT AS A BEACON OF FREEDOM. WE HAVE TO ADDRESS ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND GIVE EVERYONE A PACKET TO GET HERE LEGALLY END IN A TRANSPARENT AND FAIR WAY. >> THANK YOU VERY MUCH. [APPLAUSE] I WANT TO REMIND THOSE WHO ARE NOT IN THE HALL THAT YOU CAN SEND IN QUESTIONS OVER TWITTER, #HLN12. WE LOOK FORWARD TO THAT. WE WILL GET...






https://www.c-span.org/video/?303952-5/immigration-policy-hispanic-workforce

Trump's advisors need to be fired - like to see less of ivanka too at the wh

R. Alexander Acosta became the second dean of the FIU Law in 2009. A native of Miami and first-generation lawyer, Dean Acosta earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard College and his law degree from Harvard Law School. After serving as law clerk to Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., then a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Dean Acosta practiced law at the firm of Kirkland & Ellis and taught law at the George Mason School of Law.


Dean Acosta has served in three presidentially-appointed, senate-confirmed positions. He was a member of the National Labor Relations Board, where he participated in or authored more than 125 opinions. He went on to be the first Hispanic to hold the rank of Assistant Attorney General. Most recently, Dean Acosta served as the U.S. Attorney for Southern District of Florida, and was the longest serving U.S. Attorney in the District since the 1970s.


While Dean Acosta served as U.S. Attorney, the Southern District prosecuted a number of high-profile defendants, including Jack Abramoff for fraud, Jose Padilla for terrorism, Charles “Chuckie” Taylor Jr. for torture, (the first torture case of its kind in the U.S.), and the Cali Cartel founders Miguel and Gilberto Rodriquez-Orejuela for the importation of 200,000 kilos of cocaine, which resulted in a $2.1 billion forfeiture. The District also targeted white collar crime, prosecuting several bank-related cases, including one against Swiss Bank UBS. The case resulted in UBS paying $780 million in fines, and for the first time in history, the bank provided the United States with the names of individuals who were using secret Swiss bank accounts to avoid U.S. taxes. Under Dean Acosta’s leadership, the District also focused on health care fraud and because the top district in the nation in health care fraud prosecution, charged more than 700 individuals responsible for more than $2 billion in fraud.


Dean Acosta additionally serves as the Chairman of U.S. Century Bank, the largest domestically-owned Hispanic community bank in Florida and one of the fifteen largest Hispanic community banks in the nation. He spearheaded the effort to establish the J.M. degree in banking compliance, BSA and anti-money-laundering at FIU Law. Dean Acosta also serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Gulliver Schools, and has twice been named one of the nation’s 50 most influential Hispanics by Hispanic Business Magazine. He was named to the list of 100 most influential individuals in business ethics in 2008. He serves or has served on the Florida Innocence Commission, on the Florida Supreme Court’s Commission on Professionalism, on the Florida Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission, and on the American Bar Association’s Commission for Hispanic Rights and Responsibilities. In 2013, the South Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce presented Dean Acosta with the Chairman’s Higher Education Award in recognition of his “outstanding achievements, leadership and determination throughout a lifetime of caring and giving back to the community.”



https://law.fiu.edu/faculty/directory/acosta/

People who were opposing Puzder didn't understand Trump's agenda with the Labor Department and the skills needed to do that. But this guy will be an easy confirmation.

So is he of Cuban ethnicity?

Bush administration intervenes to allow Muslim schoolgirl to wear scarf : U.S. takes opposite tack from France

By BRIAN KNOWLTON and
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUN E

APRIL 2, 2004

WASHINGTON:— The hallways of Benjamin Franklin Science Academy in quiet Muskogee, Oklahoma, are far from those of the tough, lower-class Paris suburbs where the battle was fought on the right of Muslim girls to wear religiously mandated head scarves.

The Muskogee school system is small and peaceful; its part-time attorney, D.D. Hayes, said he was far more likely to spend time poring over contracts for a new school gymnasium than over big constitutional issues. But this week the federal government came knocking.

The Justice Department is intervening on the side of a sixth-grade Muslim girl, Nashala Hearn, who has been banned from wearing a head scarf to her Muskogee school.

That is exactly the opposite approach taken, quite controversially, by the French government. The French ban on wearing religious garb to schools, the Bush administration said earlier this year, violated "a basic right that should be protected."

While Hearn is just one girl in a small heartland town, Muslim groups say she represents a growing number of American Muslim women who, as their faith has become both more conspicuous and more controversial since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, have chosen to wear their scarves, or hijabs, in public.

To Hayes and the Muskogee school district, Hearn's scarf clearly violated a system-wide ban on the wearing of hats, caps, bandannas or jacket hoods. To the Justice Department, however, Muskogee was infringing on Hearn's constitutional right to practice her religion freely.

Hearn, 11, has twice been temporarily barred from Benjamin Franklin Science Academy. The first exclusion came not long after the second anniversary of the 2001 attacks, the second after she returned to school a few days later, still defiantly wearing a head scarf.

The matter has caused what one resident called "a big hullabaloo" in Muskogee, a town of about 40,000 best known to Americans as a place people fled during the miserable Dust Bowl days of the 1930s — and a town with few Muslims.

The Justice Department this week filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma and filed a motion to intervene in private litigation by the girl's parents.

"No student should be forced to choose between following her faith and enjoying the benefits of a public education," Assistant Attorney General R. Alexander Acosta said in announcing the action.

Hayes pointed to a federal Education Department guideline that "schools may not single out religious attire in general, or attire of a particular religion, for prohibition or regulation." Muskogee's blanket ban on all headwear, he said, clearly does not single out religious garb.

Islamic groups in the United States, and Hearn's father, welcomed the federal intervention.

"It's definitely a boost," said Eyvine Hearn, a Muskogee shipping clerk. "We're just glad to have such important support." Hearn said that he had "embraced Islam" four years ago, and that most of his family had followed.

Rabiah Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in Washington, said that her group had been trying to help the Hearnses. She applauded the Justice Department decision as a sign of its determination to protect Muslims' rights. "It's also good for other religious minorities —- for the Jewish community and the Sikh community," protecting the right to wear a yarmulke or turban to school.

She added, "On the international level, it sends messages to European countries such as the French who have banned hijabs in schools that our laws and interpretation of religious freedom are protected here."

But Hayes insisted that the school system had nothing but good intent. "We're not hostile to religion," he said. "We don't have an axgrind. We are simply trying to have a dress code." Hearn said that his daughter began wearing head scarves at the beginning of the school year without incident.

"The first several weeks of school, even the principal was giving compliments to the different types of hijab she wore," Hearn said, and a teacher offered the girl the use of an empty room to pray in.
Weeks later, some students complained that Hearn was wearing what amounted to a bandanna, though the school's dress code banned them from wearing such garb.
Since then, said her father, "it's just blown up."

The Muskogee schools were sued originally by the Rutherford Institute, a conservative civil liberties group based in Virginia, which asked the school district to rewrite its dress code to permit religious dress.

The suit was later amended to seek $80,000 in damages. The Hearnses family attorney, Leah Farish, has said the schools discriminate because they permit exceptions to the headwear rule, such as a cap worn by a child suffering from cancer, but allow no religious exceptions.

A Justice Department spokesman, Casey Stavropoulos, made the same point.

Hayes said he was looking forward to getting "some clarification" on how the Justice Department approach will be reconciled with what he sees as Education Department guidelines supporting him.
The French ban on such headwear in schools has drawn wide criticism in the United States.

Both governments have justified their positions in terms of law and national tradition. The French cite a history of secularism that marked a sharp rejection of the past entwinement of the Catholic Church and government; France also seems more intent on integrating and assimilating its Muslim population to a French way of life, with a state-sponsored integration program for new citizens. French citizens are expected to show allegiance to the values of the republic above religious or ethnic loyalties.

The United States, for its part, emphasizes a right to diversity and a constitutional right to freedom of expression and religion.

Cutting across both approaches is the question of women's rights, which some say are damaged when a woman is forced to wear the hijab.

Rabiah Ahmed objects to that thinking. "It is not the French government's responsibility to 'liberate' Muslim women," she said. "They're trying to integrate Muslims into society, and this banning of hijab is only going to isolate Muslim women even more."

Both countries seem to be reacting, as well, to recent events. France, with a large and growing Muslim population, has been wrestling with a recent upsurge in anti-Semitic vandalism, violence and protests.

The Bush administration has gone out of its way to show that even as it conducts a tough war against terror by Islamic fundamentalist militants, it has nothing against Muslims in general and does not want to see discrimination against Arabs and Muslims in the United States. Their numbers, too, are growing, but they remain a far smaller group, in percentage terms, than in France.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/02/ne...ear-scarf.html

Go to Page 7. Unable to copy his words on hispanic gang members and reluctance to prosecute them.

http://www.americanbarfoundation.org...pring_2016.pdf