Tom Perez speaks at his installation ceremony on Friday, as Attorney General Eric Holder and Deputy Attorney General David Ogden look on (Photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).
Tom Perez, who was formally installed as the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division on Friday afternoon, laid out an “agenda of restoration and revitalization” in remarks at the Great Hall of the Robert F. Kennedy building.
For Perez, who was officially sworn in to the post on Oct. 8, the ceremonial installation ceremony before an audience that included his family, Justice Department officials and former and current co-workers gave him an opportunity detail his vision of the direction he would to take the Civil Rights Division.
Perez said the division will return to its historical mission of addressing racial discrimination while also confronting the new civil rights challenges of the 21st century.
Several other speakers said Perez’ arrival will mark a new era for the division, which they said had been politicized during the Bush administration as career attorneys were chosen based on their conservative ideological beliefs.
He said he had had “fair amount of time to ponder” the task ahead of him as he awaited his Senate confirmation, which came more than six months after President Obama announced his intention to nominate the civil rights lawyer and consumer advocate to the key Justice Department post. “But during that time I have come to believe that civil rights in 2009 and beyond means continuing to combat these pesky challenges that wouldn’t go away, the blatant discrimination that exists, but also tackling the new challenges of the 21st century, the more subtle but no less challenging and no less destructive discrimination that we see in so many ways, shapes and forms.”
Some of those challenges Perez cited were addressing the effects of sub-prime lending on communities of color, discriminatory housing and lending practices, and unequal access to services for people with disabilities. “Segregating those with disabilities is every bit as bad and every bit as wrong as segregating children of color into inferior schools,” said Perez.
David Ogden (Photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).
He also pointed to the problem of discrimination against Muslim and Arab-Americans “who have been subjected to unjustified backlash” in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“We must come together to ensuring that we will never again in this nation’s history fall into the trap of believing that we can either protect our national security or safeguard our civil rights and our civil liberties. We can do both, we have done both, and we will do both in the future,” Perez said.
He also called for the Justice Department to recognize where additional civil rights laws are needed. Perez said he was proud to represent the Obama administration before the Senate two weeks ago when he testified in favor of proposed legislation that would protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people from discrimination in the workplace.
Perez cited several recent incidents that he said provide reminders of why the Civil Rights Division is still necessary – African-Americans on Staten Island who were assaulted on election night last year, the murder of late-term abortionist George Tiller by an abortion rights opponent and an incident in which a Louisiana man fired shots into the home of his Hispanic neighbors and burned it to the ground once they left the house.
“We closed the interracial marriage unit 35 years ago in this division, and yet weeks ago, we learn of a justice of the peace in Louisiana who still believes that people like Barack Obama aren’t going to get ahead in life if they’re a product of an interracial marriage,” said Perez.
Perez said he did not want recreate the Civil Rights Division of an earlier era, but rather to ensure that the division is “nimble enough to address the emerging challenges that are on the horizon.”
He also pledged that decision-making would not be politicized in the division, which under a proposed budget increase of 20 percent would add more than 100 new staff members.
“The Civil Rights Division is not the buffet line at the cafeteria, we do not pick and choose which laws we like and which laws we don’t like and enforce the former and not the latter, we enforce all the laws that are on the books,” said Perez.
(Story continues after video clip of Perez’s speech.)
Former U.S. Attorney and former Maryland Attorney General Stephen Sachs (Photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).
A number of people who worked with Perez in previous posts were on hand to praise Perez at the ceremonies on Friday, including Stephen Sachs, a former U.S. Attorney and former Maryland Attorney General, and Melody Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, who worked with Perez on the staff of the late Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
“I know that there are many dedicated lawyers here in the Civil Rights Division who have endured eight fallow years in the hopes that a leader like Tom Perez would arrive,” said Sachs. “He’s here.”
Barnes told the audience that Perez’ experience as a litigator in the Civil Rights Division led him to suggest to Kennedy that the additional civil rights legislation, including a hate crimes bill, was needed. “I was proud to watch President Obama sign the hate crimes legislation and to celebrate that signing with Tom just a few weeks ago,” said Barnes.
Read more about the ceremony and Eric Holder’s comments here.
The Buffalo News wrote a profile of Perez, who is a native of the area, which explores his family history.
[...] Perez Plans Restoration, Revitalization of Civil Rights Division Tom Perez, who was formally installed as the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division on Friday afternoon, laid out an “agenda of restoration and revitalization” in remarks at the Great Hall of the Robert F. Kennedy building. [...]
Is there one set of laws (Civil Rights and Civil Liberties) for undocumented US residents before they get arrested and another one right after they get arrested?