Thread: MALDEF Won't Be Running Civil Rights After All

MALDEF Won't Be Running Civil Rights After All

By Mark Krikorian, March 16, 2009

I'd alluded earlier to reports that Thomas Saenz, MALDEF's former top attorney, had been tapped to head the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department. Apparently, that was true, and he'd accepted the job, but then the White House threw him under the bus (it's getting crowded down there) "because of Tom’s work on immigration rights," in the words of LA County supervisor Gloria Molina. Another good sign! Instead, the administration has nominated Maryland labor secretary Tom Perez, who had earlier been rumored to be the pick for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. While the White House may have figured Perez will be easier to confirm, he doesn't actually seem any better on immigration; after all, he's former president of the board of Casa de Maryland, the state's premier pro-illegal-immigration advocacy group.

http://www.cis.org/node/1097

Center for Immigration Studies
http://www.cis.org/

The new pick was, no doubt, just an attempt to avoid an uproar of controversy over such an in-your-face example of special interests being installed into the administration.

But, since all of the pro-illegal organizations are interconnected, the selection of Perez actually changes nothing.....MALDEF and Blah, Blah, Blah, will still very much be running the CR Division.

There are several internal links in this piece which can be accessed from the source:
http://24ahead.com/tom-perez-now-heads- ... thomas-sae

Tom Perez now heads DOJ Civil Rights Division (not Thomas Saenz)

Barack Obama has selected Thomas Perez to head the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. His full bio as provided by the White House is below [1]. Oddly enough, they fail to note his close ties to Casa de Maryland, a far-left group that strongly supports illegal immigration.

Note that at the end of last month, the word on the street was that he was going to head up the USCIS and that Thomas Saenz - formerly of MALDEF - was going to get the position Perez got. Saenz was apparently selected but then de-selected, perhaps over worries that MALDEF was too extreme or that his strong support for illegal immigration would work against him. So, they selected someone linked to Casa of Maryland instead...

Per this:

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.

[1] From whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/
President-Obama-Announces-More-Key-Administration-Posts-3-13-09 here's Perez' bio:

Tom Perez is a nationally recognized civil rights lawyer and consumer advocate who currently serves as the Secretary of Maryland’s Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (DLLR). Under Perez’s leadership, DLLR protects and empowers working Americans. The Department enforces workplace safety laws that provide critical safeguards to workers and communities; enforces wage and hour, and other worker protection laws that ensure wage security; protects consumers through the enforcement of a wide range of consumer rights laws, including the mortgage setting; and collaborates with businesses and workers to address critical workforce development needs and build a world-class workforce. Perez has extensive experience in foreclosure prevention and was a principal architect of a sweeping package of state reforms to address the foreclosure crisis in Maryland. A graduate of Brown University, Harvard Law School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Perez has spent his entire career in public service. From 2002 until 2006, Perez was a member of the Montgomery County Council. He was the first Latino ever elected to the Council, and served as Council President in 2005. Earlier in his career, Perez spent 12 years in federal public service. As a federal prosecutor for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, he prosecuted and supervised the prosecution of some of the Department’s most high profile civil rights cases, including a hate crimes case in Texas involving a group of white supremacists who went on a deadly, racially motivated crime spree. Perez later served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights under Attorney General Janet Reno. Among other responsibilities, Secretary Perez chaired the interagency Worker Exploitation Task Force, which oversaw a variety of initiatives designed to protect vulnerable workers. Perez previously served as Special Counsel to Senator Edward Kennedy, and was Senator Kennedy’s principal adviser on civil rights, criminal justice and constitutional issues. For the final two years of the Clinton administration, Perez served as the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Perez was a law professor for six years at University of Maryland School of Law and is a part-time professor at the George Washington School of Public Health.