Border Czar - Alan Bersin

Border Czar - Alan Bersin

Title: Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs

Salary: unknown

Reports to: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano

Appointed: April 2009

Agencies that might have handled similar issues: Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

• Will coordinate all of the department’s border security and law-enforcement efforts.

• Essentially had the same job under President Clinton; served as Attorney General Janet Reno’s special representative on border issues, a job that he held while retaining the position of U.S. attorney for San Diego.

• This time, boss will be Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who will expect him to handle illegal immigration and drug violence issues along the Mexican-American border

• Previous experience: Chairman of the San Diego Regional Airport Authority (2006 to 2009); Secretary of Education for California (2005 to 2006); Superintendent of San Diego Public Schools (1998 to 2005); U.S. Attorney for San Diego (1993 to 1998)

• Graduate of Harvard and Yale Law School

• Talking about border security shortly before he was named Clinton border czar in 1995, said he wanted to focus on suspected smugglers of both drugs and people and was not interested in prosecuting “economic migrants.”

• Often tied to the 1994 border policy called “Operation Gatekeeper.” The policy shifted the U.S. focus from the arresting of immigrants who actually crossed the border to an increased border presence designed to stop border crossing in the first place. When Bersin left the position in 1998, border arrests were on pace for an 18-year low of just more than 200,000. Latino groups complained that Operation Gatekeeper was immoral, saying the program monitored the border near San Diego but simply forced illegal immigrants to other, more dangerous areas.

• Has given more than $50,000 to political campaigns since 1999, almost all of it to Democrats.

(SOURCE: List of Obama Czars by Glenn Beck
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Ultra Liberal friend of Hilary Clinton.
Former failed superintendent of San Diego.
Served as Border Czar under Janet Reno to keep borders open to illegals.

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Bersin was born in 1946 to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York. He attended public schools and Hebrew school in New York City. He received an A.B. in government from Harvard, and then attended Balliol College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. In 1974, he obtained a J.D. degree from Yale Law School.

From 1995-1998, Bersin served as the Attorney General’s Southwest Border Representative, coordinating law enforcement on the border between the U.S. and Mexico.

His appointment in 1998 as Superintendent of Public Education in San Diego City Schools put him in control of the eighth largest urban school district in the U.S. In 2005, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him as California's Education Secretary.

In 2007, the nonprofit electronic journalism outlet voiceofsandiego.org (http://voiceofsandiego.org/) reported that Bersin was considering a run for City Attorney of San Diego.

On April 15, 2009, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the appointment of Bersin as DHS Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs. In the press release announcing his appointment, Secretary Napolitano said, "Alan brings years of vital experience working with local, state and international partners to help us meet the challenges we face at our borders. He will lead the effort to make our borders safe while working to promote commerce and trade.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Bersin
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MUCKETY CONNECTION MAP: Alan D. Bersin
http://www.muckety.com/Alan-D-Bersin/10037.muckety
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CONSERVAPEDIA - Alan Bersin
http://www.conservapedia.com/Alan_Bersin

He's been here before. Alan Bersin, President Obama's pick for "border czar" essentially had the same job under President Clinton. This time, however, instead of serving under Attorney General Janet Reno, Bersin's boss will be Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who will expect him to handle illegal immigration and drug violence issues along the Mexican-American border. A man who is used to jumping into jobs with almost no experience, Bersin at least has a leg up on this one.

Fast Facts:

• Born in October, 1946 in Brooklyn, NY to a strict Jewish family. He is twice married and has three children.

• During his impressive educational career, became friends with Al Gore (while at Harvard), Bill Clinton (while a Rhodes Scholar) and Hillary Clinton (during his years at Yale Law School).

• A star linebacker at Harvard, Bersin took up horseback riding and scuba diving in his later years due to injured knees from football.

• Has been known to take jobs for which he has little experience. Served as U.S. Attorney in San Diego despite not being a criminal lawyer. Became San Diego School Superintendent despite not having sent any of his children to public institutions.

• As border czar under Janet Reno in the mid-1990s, implemented "Operated Gatekeeper," which fortified the border closest to San Diego, but effectively only shifted illegal immigrant crossings east. Immigrant advocacy groups blamed his policies for increased border-crossing deaths. (See pictures of Mexico's drug industry)

• Speaks Spanish fluently.

• Bersin's seven-year term as San Diego education superintendent — at the time one of the longest in the nation — was notable for the vehement opposition it drew from teacher unions and school board members. Both groups decried Bersin's "Blueprint for Student Success" plan — which placed an emphasis on basic math and reading programs and a single curriculum — as limiting (and even, said some extreme critics, "fascistic"). By the time he left, a huge rift had opened between teachers and San Diego principals, over 80% of which he hired during his term.

• Before being picked to take over as California Education Secretary, Bersin was seriously considered to take over the Motion Picture Association of America.

Quotes By:

• "What's going on in Mexico, across the border, in Juarez, requires that we support the government of Mexico in its very valiant, courageous effort to both stem violence and also deal with the drug trafficking organizations."
— on working with Mexican officials (CNN April 15, 2009)

• "The tragedy of migrants ... dying is a horrible regret of any action which has that outcome."
— on the criticism that Operation Gatekeeper pushed migrants deeper into the desert, where they were more easily susceptible to dehydration and death, (San Diego Union-Tribune, June 13, 1998)

• "There were mistakes made. There were dozens and even hundreds of mistakes made, but never for the wrong reasons, because the focus needed to be shifted. It needed to be taken away from what adults wanted for their employment to what children needed for their education. That's going to lead to lots of tensions and conflicts."
— on the controversy that accompanied his tenure as San Diego school superintendent (San Diego Union-Tribune, Jan. 29, 2005)

• "I am now so used to being vilified and having our initiatives mischaracterized or maligned that I have recently found myself failing to listen seriously to my opponents ... That has never happened before to me, and I find it unacceptable in myself."
— during a first-ever "state of the district" address delivered while superintendent. Near the end of his tenure, Bersin's opponents in the teachers union and school board were attacking him as often as possible. (San Diego Union-Tribune, April 5, 2002)

Quotes About:

• "In certain circles in the city, Bersin is a verb. Bersin is a punch line. Bersin is the boogeyman. Yet outside San Diego, Bersin and his education work are the subject of academic research and think tanks." (San Diego Union-Tribune, May 1, 2005)

• "Alan is a reformer and that is what I love about him. As superintendent, he launched a major administrative reorganization and an academic reform plan aimed at improving student achievement. And the plan is working."
— Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of California, upon announcing Bersin as state education secretary, (San Diego Union-Tribune, April 20, 2005)

• "I'd rather have someone who knows the issues than someone who spends two or three years learning them."
— Enrique Morones, San Diego pro-immigration activist, on Bersin's previous experience working on the border, (San Diego Union-Tribune, April 15, 2009)

• "Teachers can't believe it. We Are worried about the future. Alan Bersin is a dictator who never took the opinion of the classroom teacher."
— Barbara Scott, elementary school teacher, upon the announcement that Bersin would be state education secretary, (San Diego Union-Tribune, April 30, 2005)

• "You represent death to us."
— Christian Ramirez, Raza Rights Coalition protester, during a San Diego town hall meeting. Latino activists have been vocal opponents of Bersin over the years due to their perception that Operation Gatekeeper resulted in the death of many border crossers, (San Diego Union-Tribune, June 5, 1998)

SOURCE: TIME- in partnership with CNN
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1891573,00.html#ixzz1CZ5ckaXO
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Alan Bersin's nomination is troubled Education nominee hits snag - Alan Bersin's critics question San Diego fund's expenses.

Post Admin Today at 6:10
By Todd Milbourn -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Friday, March 10, 2006

On the eve of confirmation hearings for his place on the California State Board of Education less than three weeks away, Alan Bersin is facing questions about expenditures from an educational fund he oversaw while superintendent of San Diego schools.
A copy of a draft report from an internal audit, dated Nov. 1, 2005, and obtained by The Bee, highlights questionable record-keeping and spending from the fund, including $35,476 for meals and $3,801 for alcoholic beverages over a seven-year period.

Bersin, whom Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named secretary of education, labeled the draft report as an attempt to thwart his confirmation and settle "old political scores."

"Every one of the expenses was approved as being in accordance with purposes of the fund," said Bersin in a telephone interview Thursday. "This was all done in terms of supporting educational reform, supporting the team effort. And it was fully disclosed."

The fund in question - the superintendent's fund for innovation - was created in 1998, shortly after Bersin became superintendent of the state's second-largest school district. The fund was a partnership between the school district and the nonprofit San Diego Foundation, which gave Bersin latitude to direct expenditures. Bersin has described the fund as support for new programs in the San Diego schools.

The foundation collected money for the fund through private donations from groups such as the Walton Family Foundation, Wells Fargo and the J. Dallas & Mary H. Clark Fund.

Bersin often used the fund to reimburse his travel and entertainment expenses so the district wouldn't have to. The San Diego school board was not involved in the fund's creation and did not have oversight over its spending. That led school board members to question the foundation's activities.

Bersin spent $574,733 through the fund during his tenure, according to the report. The report calls into question about $44,871 of that, including: $471 to attend President Bush's inauguration; $160 for the Union of Pan Asian Communities annual fundraiser dinner; and $500 to Nice Guys Inc. of San Diego for an advertisement in a program booklet at an awards ceremony.

Bersin said the money was well spent, validated by improved test scores among San Diego students. Between 2002 and 2004, scores for Latino and African American students on the state's Academic Performance Index rose 8 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

He said the fund allowed him to bring in consultants, offer a signing bonus for a communications director and pay the commuting expenses for Anthony Alvarado, the San Diego district's chancellor of instruction who commuted from New York for a year and spearheaded aggressive reforms of classroom instruction that upset teachers unions.

"I don't think anyone, friend or foe alike, would say the changes weren't dramatic" and for the better, he said.

The review of the fund was commissioned in August by San Diego school board member Mitz Lee, a longtime critic of Bersin, who as a former federal prosecutor had no formal education experience when he took over the district in 1998. Lee said she was concerned that expenditures weren't approved by the school board, leaving potential for abuse.

"To me, it's all about the board exercising due diligence on financial affairs of the district," she said Thursday.

Lee said she also was concerned that the foundation hasn't disclosed a contributor of more than $207,000.

"What if those people have business or any conflicts of interest with the district?" Lee asked. Bob Kelly, executive director of the San Diego Foundation, couldn't be reached for comment Thursday.

[continued....]
http://choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com/2006/03/alan-bersins-nomination-is-troubled.html