Thread: Senate OKs Myers for Immigration Job

Senate OKs Myers for Immigration Job
By EILEEN SULLIVAN – 2 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Julie L. Myers as director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, two years after President Bush appointed her to the position amid questions about her qualifications to lead the government's second-largest law enforcement agency.

Myers was among more than 30 people whose appointments were approved by a voice vote of the Senate as it concluded its session.

Bush had used a recess appointment in 2005 to put Myers, then 36, in charge of ICE, the branch of the Homeland Security Department that enforces immigration laws, when the Senate appeared unlikely to confirm her. Although she was a former Treasury official and assistant U.S. attorney, lawmakers debated whether she had enough experience to lead the agency.

Critics also noted her personal connections within the Bush administration. She was engaged — and is now married — to John F. Wood, who was chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and is now the U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo. Ret. Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is her uncle.

Myers herself was Chertoff's chief of staff when he led the Justice Department's criminal division. However, her appointment in 2005 came after Hurricane Katrina, which brought criticism over the experience of those handling the federal response to the disaster.

Her appointment ran into trouble again this fall when she gave the "most original" costume award to a white employee who came to the agency's Halloween party dressed as an escaped prisoner with dreadlocks and darkened skin. The incident drew complaints of racial insensitivity and elicited an apology from Myers.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., the Senate's most vocal opponent of Myers' permanent appointment as head of ICE, placed a hold on her nomination after the Halloween incident. The senator's spokeswoman, Adrianne Marsh, said McCaskill "still believes Julie Myers isn't focused enough on employer enforcement and she's not the right pick, but there simply were not enough votes to oppose her nomination."

Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said the Senate's approval validates Myers' hard work and accomplishments.

ICE was formed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks when parts of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and Customs agencies were merged.

http://ap.google.com

She needed to be fired and replaced by a competant person... We Ameicans are fed up with the good ole boy and girl syndrome.. it's time for all of them to go

I would suggest they take on line classes out of embarressment. Corruption leeds this country while Americans twiddle thumbs and take they're sleep medication watching the late show

I'm not buying this.

Two of the leading presidential candidates for the Democrats oppose this incompetent hack and McCaskill is saying that there wasn't enough support to kill this nomination?!

Julie Myers is the WORST nominee to come out of the Bush administration ever. Even if the Senate wanted to approve her because of its love affair with Mexico there should have still been enough pressure exerted by groups like the NAACP to block the ICE princess.

If this doesn't convince the public that we have a Roman Senate I think nothing will.

Shame on Senator McCaskill for not asking for a "record roll call vote." If there weren't enough votes to oppose Myers, we deserved to know which Senators had the guts and principle on this issue and those who did not. Now, we will never know. And Senator McCaskill's posturing against Myers was just that--posturing. Had she maintained her hold on Myers, there would never have been a vote. But she relented. So, she is as responsible as anyone for this debacle.

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/