No tears for Julie Myers

[Jolie Rouge]

No tears for Julie Myers

As you may have heard, ICE chief Julie Myers is in trouble over her stupid Halloween costume flap:

Costume flap imperils immigration post
By SAM HANANEL, Associated Press Writer
Sat Nov 17, 7:43 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Just when it appeared Julie Myers had cleared every hurdle in her quest to officially become the nation's top immigration official, a dreadlocked wig and a prisoner's outfit could cost her the job.

Myers, director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ran into trouble earlier this month after she and two other agency managers 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 an apology from Myers. It also cast doubt on whether she'll get a confirmation vote before the end of the year, when her original appointment expires.

It would be a stunning collapse for Myers, 38, a native of Shawnee, Kan., who worked hard over the past two years to convince skeptical lawmakers that someone with little immigration experience was up to the task of running the government's second largest investigative force.

With just a few more weeks to go before the end of the session, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has not scheduled a vote on Myers. Spokesman Jim Manley said this week that Reid has "serious concerns" with the nomination and is consulting with other lawmakers about how to proceed.

Myers met resistance in 2005, the first time President Bush tried to appoint her to the Homeland Security Department post, after Democrats and Republicans said she had weak credentials for the high-profile job. To avoid a fight, Bush installed her during a Senate recess and her position expires at year's end unless the Senate votes to confirm her.

Questions about nepotism also came up because Myers is the niece of Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She is married to John Wood, the U.S. attorney in Kansas City and former chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Even some of those expected to defend Julie Myers seemed shaky.

"The way things are going, we may not ever vote on her nomination," Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., who is a second cousin of Myers' husband, said Friday. "Our nation's immigration enforcement agency needs non-controversial leadership. That would be best served by going in a different direction with this nomination."

Bond's reaction was a surprise, said ICE spokeswoman Kelly Nantel, and Myers is trying to speak with the senator about it.

Despite Bush's decision to circumvent the Senate, it was clear in hearings earlier this year that Myers had won over many doubters with her performance in stabilizing the agency's financial problems and improving its management.

Some key lawmakers have rallied to her defense, including Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent who chairs the Senate Homeland Security committee, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the panel's top Republican.

"Senator Lieberman regrets her lapse in judgment regarding the Halloween incident," spokeswoman Leslie Phillips said. "He is inclined to support her nomination, given the committee's review of her entire record, the fact that the union representing 7000 ICE employees supports her and her year's experience in office."

Myers has apologized repeatedly for the costume incident, saying she was "shocked and horrified" to learn the employee had altered his skin color and conceding "it was inappropriate for me to recognize any individual wearing an escaped prisoner costume."

"She took very direct steps prior to address what she felt was a bad judgment call, bad decision and to take responsibility for what was an offensive costume worn by an employee," Nantel said.

The employee was placed on administrative leave and Myers issued a formal apology to all ICE employees two days after the episode. She also reached out to a black employees group to express her regrets. The group, the National Association of African-Americans in the Department of Homeland Security, sent a letter to Reid this week praising Myers' commitment to black employees.

Still, it was not the kind of image many lawmakers wanted to see from the agency responsible for arresting and incarcerating illegal immigrants.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., one of Myers' harshest critics even before the costume episode, placed a hold on the nomination while lawmakers sought more details. While McCaskill does not support Myers, she is willing to allow an up or down vote in the full Senate.

"I can forgive anyone who apologizes for a wrong deed," said McCaskill. "But it doesn't change the fact that the incident showed a woeful lack of judgment."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071117/ap_on_go_ot/immigration_offensive_costume;_ylt=AiMUUUWv3lTRdrH Pl6r3jgys0NUE

On the Net:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement: http://www.ice.gov/

I can’t say I have much sympathy for Ms. Myers. She didn’t deserve the job in the first place. Even setting aside the Halloween brouhaha, she represents so much of why DHS is a mess. And however much she might have tried to compensate for her inexperience the last two years, she reinforces the perception (and reality) that the White House still doesn’t take immigration enforcement seriously enough.

Sorry, no tears.

[Jolie Rouge]

.... she reinforces the perception (and reality) that the White House still doesn’t take immigration enforcement seriously enough.

Have you heard about the new breast milk loophole?

Check out the ICE lactation memo.

ICE's Illegal Alien La Leche League:
Forget Catch & Release, Meet Catch & Re . . .Lactate?
By Debbie Schlussel

While Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Chieftess Julie "Blackface" Myers a/k/a "The ICE Princess" tries to wait out the hold on her nomination, she's engaging in more of her usual absurdity in non-enforcement of our nation's immigration laws.

You'll love the latest . . . with a catchy feminist twist. If you're an illegal alien female (I doubt this will work with males but, with The ICE Princess, ya never know), you can claim you are lactating and must nurse your baby. And presto, you will be released from custody. Yes, just the latest item that puts the lie to her claim that catch and release of illegal aliens has ended. It hasn't.


Lactation: Illegal Aliens' New Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free Card, Courtesy of ICE
Check out this memo to all ICE Special Agents in Charge and Field Office Directors from The ICE Princess herself, as proof. And to top it off, she is citing failed former INS chief Doris Meissner and a memo she wrote in 2000. Um, hello . . . . Isn't her failed leadership and your continued failed leadership how we got 20 million plus illegal aliens here in the first place? Here are the scintillating words of The ICE Princess on how to continue La Leche Catch And Release:

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/icelactationmemo.pdf


This memorandum serves to highlight the importance of exercising prosecutorial discretion [DS: Fancy phraseology for "if I want to release them, I can"] when making administrative arrest and custody determinations for aliens who are nursing mothers. The commitment by ICE to facilitate an end to the "catch and relase" procedure for illegal aliens does not diminish the responsibility of ICE agents and officers to use discretion in identifying and responding to meritorious health related cases and caregiver issues.
The process for making discretionary decisions is outlined in the attached memorandum of November 7, 2000, entitled "Exercising Prosecutorial Discretion." [DS: by failed INS Chieftess Doris Meissner] Field agents and officers are not only authorized by law to exercize discretion within the authority of the agency, but are expected to do so in a judicious manner at all stages of the enforcement process. [DS: In other words, hey agents, please find excuses to release aliens into the general .'

For example, in situations where officers are considering taking a nursing mother into custody, the senior ICE field managers should consider:

* Absent any statutory detention requirement or concerns such as national security threats to public safety or other investigative insterests, the nursing mother should be released on an Order of Recognizance or Order of Supervision and the Alternatives to Detention programs should be considered as an additional enforcement tool.


As one of the many angry ICE agents writes:


This is going over real well. It's been called the Lactation Memo. Seems every female illegal alien arrested these days is now claiming she has a kid at home, no daddy around and that she's breast feeding--this is the way they get released. It's the catch and lactate policy. La Leche League is doing an awesome job and our "leader" is right up there with the really important memos. Talk about a kick to the nuts of morale AGAIN. How bad is it when Jules is citing to Doris Meissner memos. In the words of Charlie Brown, "We're Doomed !". Don't get me wrong, child nourishment is important, but how TF is an agent supposed to know if someone is nursing? [Nipples] Check ? I went through INS Spanish Training and never had nursing or lactation on a vocab test. "Professora, como se dice lactating"?

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2007/11/exclusive_-_ice.html

[Jolie Rouge]

No tears for Julie Myers

As you may have heard, ICE chief Julie Myers is in trouble over her stupid Halloween costume flap...
[/i]



Back in November, when the latest Julie Myers fiasco broke out, I said I had no tears for her. She’s the crony DHS head of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau whose unpreparedness for the job I’ve spotlighted repeatedly over the years. When word spread about her photo-op at a Halloween party with a politically incorrect employee wearing a prison costume and darkened skin, I noted that however much she might have tried to compensate for her inexperience the last two years, she reinforces the perception (and reality) that the White House still doesn’t take immigration enforcement seriously enough.

http://michellemalkin.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/1myerhallo.jpg

Now, the pictures of the party–like the one above–have been released. And they underscore and illustrate my points vividly.

Myers, whose Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency runs the nation’s 32,000-bed immigration detention system, was on a three-judge panel that gave a “most original costume” award to the worker at an ICE charity event Oct. 31. Myers subsequently apologized, saying the costume could leave “a negative impression” of ICE’s respect for people whom it detains and explained that she learned only the next day that the man was wearing makeup.

Myers’s Senate confirmation was delayed until December partly as a result of the controversy, and she told lawmakers who inquired last fall that she had immediately instructed aides to order that the digital photographs of the worker be deleted. The images aired on CNN yesterday, however, after the cable television network obtained 113 official photographs of the party, including recovered versions of all the deleted ones, through a Freedom of Information Act request.

“At a minimum, she was being disingenuous,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a member of the Senate homeland security committee. McCaskill had objected to Myers’s nomination over her handling of the matter and over ICE’s slow release of data about criminal enforcement against companies that hire illegal immigrants. “You would not think the committee would have to resort to a FOIA request from the media to get these photographs,” she said.

A spokesman for Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii), another committee member, added in a statement: “The perception of racial insensitivity is a serious threat to the credibility of ICE. These pictures raise serious concerns about whether ICE purposely withheld the pictures requested by Congress and whether Ms. Myers’ account of the incident was completely forthcoming.”

…In a Nov. 8 letter replying to questions by McCaskill, Myers said that she was “shocked and horrified” to learn that the employee was wearing makeup but that within minutes of leaving the party she instructed her chief of staff to direct ICE’s events photographer “to delete all photos of the employee.”

“Although I didn’t know that the employee had disguised his race, I believed I had made an error in judgment in recognizing an escaped prisoner,” Myers wrote.

It’s not the “racism” that’s so offensive.

It’s the utter stupidity.

The head of ICE, one of the top domestic homeland security officials in the country, couldn’t tell that the dweeb in a dreadlock wig standing next to her was wearing makeup.

Criminey.

If Bozo the Clown were standing next to her, would she know the red nose wasn’t real–or would she need posterior-covering staffers to help her realize that, too?

Compounding the stupidity are all the whiny, sanctimonious senators who now claim they were “misled.”

Myers was unfit for the job at the start and little had changed when the Senate voted to confirm her in December on an unrecorded voice vote.

Stupid is as stupid does.

Yeah, we’re “backsliding” all right, Chertoff.

Interesting that the photos were just released. These photos should have been widely released in a more timely fashion - specifically when Julie Myers confirmation was on the line.

This timing stinks to high heaven.

She told congress she had deleted the photos and it took CNN’s Freedom of Information Act request to force DHS to find and release them. In other words they were withheld until she was safely confirmed


Myers said that she was “shocked and horrified” to learn that the employee was wearing makeup :“Although I didn’t know that the employee had disguised his race, ..."

http://michellemalkin.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/1myerhallo.jpg

Notice the hands?


What gets me is that if someone had been dressed as an arrested Muslim terrorist, she would never have allowed that. It would be way too offensive to Muslims, and she thinks her department’s main goal is to make sure their “civil rights” are not infringed upon. They must never be offended at any cost.

It is appalling is that her first reaction is to ‘award’ this individual as "the most original costume". Then before leaving an epiphany causes her to realize that it might not look too good if this were to get out so you advise your assistant to ‘destroy’ all the photos, speaks volumes to me.

Signs of a bigot and an insensitive elitest: the realization of which causes you to instinctively CYA before leaving the event. ( not to mention the possibility that she might be unqualified for the position she holds, I think the elitist bigotry is far greater....)

[Jolie Rouge]

February 07, 2008
Uncle Tom's ICE: Congressmen, Senators Now "Shocked" At Myers Blackface Photos
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By Debbie Schlussel

**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE ****

In November of last year, I told you about CNN's Freedom of Information Act request for photos of The ICE Princess, Julie L. Myers, posing and smiling with the black-faced ICE employee, to whom she had just given an award for "original" costume. I said it would be the nail in the coffin for Myers' then flailing nomination to head up Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And it, likely, would have been. But ICE delayed and, in violation of FOIA, took months to give CNN the photos. CNN finally obtained the photos and posted them today (Thanks to Karl Fillipini of The Dan Stein Report and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) for the tip). I've posted those below.


Julie Myers Smiles/Poses With Blackface Costumed ICE Agent

Julie Myers Smiles, Awards Blackface Costume
Some of the photos, as I noted at the time, had been destroyed at the instruction of Myers in her successful cover-up attempts. As I also noted then, that constitutes deliberate destruction of evidence, a violation of the law and certainly grounds for Myers' law license to be revoked. (If you know in which state bar(s) she's licensed, please e-mail me, and I will initiate a grievance against her--as this behavior was and is criminal. It's called "tampering" and "obstruction of justice." If an agent did this and got caught, he/she would face jailtime. So should she.) CNN was only able to get the destroyed photos when DHS technicians were ordered to reclaim them. As you know, nothing on a computer is ever really "deleted."

Now, we're treated to various phony "I'm shocked--shocked!" comments from Democrats, like Senator Claire McCaskill and Congressman Bennie Thompson, whose House Committee oversees DHS and ICE. Um, what are they SHOCKED! about? They knew about the photos. A pic of the agent in his blackface costume was all over the Net. I posted it here. They knew it was a blackface costume and that Myers gave the totally incredulous lie that she thought the man was not in blackface but wearing bronzer. Hello . . .? They didn't believe it, we didn't believe it, no-one believed that, including Myers and her overprotective boyfriend, Skeletor Chertoff.

McCaskill--who initially put a hold on Myers' nomination because of the photos and costume party award, but then famously wimped out--and Thompson claimed that had they seen the pics, things would have been different. Uh, NO, with these two, they would not have been different. Once again, they knew about the party, the blackface costume, the destroyed pics, etc. And they let her nomination go through, without so much as a record roll-call vote in the Senate. Why would actually seeing Myers standing next to the guy change their "I excuse racism" views that they had in November and December.

And they're not the only reason Myers' nomination went through. The White House and Republican and Democrat Senators--including Barack Obama, who claimed he'd oppose Myers over the blackface incident, yet voted for her--did nothing but make excuses for her and unanimously support her, without exception. A reason they did this was that Black activists--like shakedown artists such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton--were famously mum on the chief immigration enforcer in the nation, while they called for Don Imus' firing.

Another reason she got away with this is the phony Black Homeland Security group, NAADHS, made up of two Uncle Tom ICE agents who want promotions from Myers, who went--at taxpayer expense and at Myers' express direction--around Capitol Hill meeting with the likes of Thompson, Joe Lieberman, and other Myers' blind champions, telling them how great Myers has been for Black ICE agents.

Many Black ICE agents contacted me, telling me how disgusted they were with Myers over the Blackface incident, over her lack of any basic competence, and that the NAADHS does not represent them. I have been told the group is an organization of two Black ICE agents--Gregory Thompson and Sjon Shavers--who will do or say anything to get promotions and advance their careers. Others have told me that both are experienced long-time agents who deserve, but were shut out of promotions, including by Myers. I have also been told that The ICE Princess has promised them both promotions, provided that they made the rounds on Capitol Hill telling Senators and Congressmen how Black ICE agents are not offended by the Blackface incident and totally forgive Ms. Myers. (In reality, they do NOT.)

Your tax dollars paid for their salary on the days they spent on the Hill in this important Immigration and Customs Enforcement task. And it appears that your tax dollars paid for these two Uncle Toms with zero self-respect to travel to Washington, DC to take part in this important national security endeavor. Mr. Thompson is based out of Atlanta, so his airfare, hotel, etc. was paid for not by Ms. Myers, but by you. So many self-respecting, dedicated Black ICE agents told me about this, and they were not happy about it.

I contacted both Mr. Shavers and Mr. Thompson about this. Neither would comment. But don't be surprised if they get promotions--or have since November. On the other hand, when you play with a snake, you usually get bitten. So maybe the snake-ette won't come through in her last year, anyway. If Shavers and Thompson truly deserve promotions and have been shut out, cheering on an incompetent woman who can't see racism when it's right in her face, is not the way to get them.

I cannot fault Black ICE agents for not standing up against NAADHS. The atmosphere in ICE is one of vindictiveness, revenge, and persecution for whistleblowers. Agents need to eat and support their families. A transfer to Pakistan (yes, ICE agents are there) can lead to divorce, or as it recently did for one talented agent, suicide.

I guarantee if the larger Black community and civil rights activists had made a big deal out of Myers, she'd have been toast by now.

(continues )

[Jolie Rouge]

I've previously published some of the many e-mails I've received from Black ICE agents in response to the whole Blackface incident, back in November. Here is another one, which sums up very nicely what so many of them have told me:


I have been a reader of your blog for a while, and although I have different opinions from time to time I find your column interesting nonetheless. . . .
I, too, was appalled at the story of the costume party. I too am not
represented by the National Association for African Americans in the
Department of Homeland Security (NAADHS) I have not been loudly
complaining because I feel that when it comes down to brass tacks, none cares what this woman does. When I say that I mean her record in general, before she had this position and since she has had it. This
last incident is just another in a long list of problems.

How can she go from not even having her confirmation voted on by the
full Senate 1 year ago to now being all but assured of a confirmation?
As sad as it sounds, I have no belief that this issue will hold up her
confirmation at all. There are probably promises that certain
congressional districts will not have any work site enforcement
operations for the near future as a result of her confirmation. We all know that no one really wants to fix Immigration, or there would be real talk on overhauling Title 8, not just guest worker visas.

I feel that if I have to explain to someone in 2007, almost 2008 that a white person showing up to a Government building on Government time, dressed in black/brown or any color that is not their true skin color, wearing a prison uniform and a dred wig is wrong, not politically incorrect, WRONG, then that is proof that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Mrs. Myers has done nothing to mediate the disputes between Detention and Removal (DRO) and the Office of Investigations (OI), not to mention the Federal Protective Service is swimming in red ink we all hear. So to hear that Mrs. Myers and two of her top staff felt that that was the most original costume does not surprise me at all, simple is as simple does. One would also question how that individual made it to the party, no less near Mrs. Myers dressed like that and none of the GS-15's or SES's in attendance stopped him and told him that at a minimum he was dressed inappropriately?

As far as the issue of all black agents being painted with the same
broad brush, powerful does not deal with powerless. In my office, we
have over 80+ 1811s [DS: 1811s are investigative agents]. I am one of two. In HQ the ratios are probably the same. So there probably is no one to take up the fight, besides those in position to say anything are not high enough to avoid adverse penalties on their careers, I am sure their families like to eat regularly as well.

At the end of the day, I do not believe that anyone cares if the black
agents are offended in any fashion. Many of our co-workers still feel
that we are all jst affirmative action hires anyway, and are not as
good as the rest of them. Some have even said to me and around me
that , " The only way to get hired now is to be a minority or a
female." One good thing about our job is that we all get academy class pictures, meaning we get to see who is graduating from the academies.

Trust me, there are more white males coming through FLETC than any one else.

While I'm no advocate of affirmative action, I am a fan of fixing ICE and promoting competent, talented agents and leaders (as the above Black agent clearly sounds like he is), regardless of color. Clearly, Ms. Myers is not a fan of that--her own current position is anathema to that view.

Sadly, because of a couple of Uncle Toms, we have an incompetentette at the top of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and our country is in deep trouble because of it.

Exit Question: Are Julie Myers and John Wood (her well-connected hubby) friends with John McCain?



If they are, hopefully the CNN publication of the pics today will come in the way of their friendship. Sadly, we all knew about the Blackface incident.

A picture really wasn't needed for us to know the "thousand words."

**** UPDATE: Yet another of so many very decent, honorable, dedicated, and, sadly, shut-out-of-leadership-opportunities Black ICE Agent responds. The agent makes excellent points.:



Debbie,
I'm a black agent and am more incensed than ever at the fact that this can happen in modern law enforcement without any consequences. It kills even the smallest bit of optimism that I have left as a law enforcement officer. I have spent an entire career making certain that in all dealings, particularly with respect to facts and evidence, that I'm truthful and consistent. Even if an agent appears to be untruthful, absent any facts to prove it, he/she could be barred from testifying for the rest of his/her career.

I have no doubt that these photos could have been accessed in a more timely manner. Moreover, aren't we one of the few agencies that deals with computers extensively? We do child porn investigations where we have to recover data from hard drives, etc. We can get this stuff in a timely fashion, why not a few pics of some government hack in a wig and black face? It also begs the question as to why these two senators with all of their influence couldn't have used their vast resources to demand the pictures be produced "yesterday." To add to it, they could've demanded that Myers personally bring them (that would be fabulous). How embarrassing would that have been!? This clown Thompson behaves like he's shocked and amazed. He should be ashamed of himself not only for being in his post, but being a black man in his post. He is a disgrace to say the least, devoid of any plumbs. This agency is not only off the tracks it's in a ditch and smoking.

I like how the spin machine is still trying to convince the rest of us that this is all bad timing. If CNN is the driving force behind getting the pictures in the first place then we are truly in bad shape. Surely the power of these senators could have achieved more in less time?

As to the issue of black agents not standing up to those in NAAADHS, I think it truly is that most of us aren't members and don't know anyone else who is. After this huge failure, I don't imagine there will be any new applications being submitted. Black, white, yellow or blue, I just wonder like the rest of my colleagues how it is that this woman felt it good timing to even host a ridiculous party when we are busy trying to be taken seriously by the rest of the law enforcement community. By the way, I think that the lady in the center is her Deputy Assistant Secretary. What a joke!

Your use of the term "Uncle Tom" albeit used by "Us" makes me cringe when I see it on your page. One objectively can't argue with the facts though, sad but true. That these jokers went on a whistle stop tour to make things right for this crony makes me incensed with disgust. We owe her nothing, and her motivation needs to stem from leaving a legacy we can be proud of (too late for that), not doing her a favor because she's in a "jam." So long as an agency operates with two standards, one set for the back bone of the agency (us) and yet another for the aristocracy (Myers and Forman et al), this will continue to be a a sub standard low rate outfit that attracts weirdoes and freaks.

I'm amazed that 60 minutes has yet to do a piece on this scandal rife outfit, truly...


AMEN! It is now Black History month. And ICE's Black History, today, is release of the Blackface photos, and that the woman who sanctioned them is still heading the agency.


http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2008/02/uncle_toms_ice.html