Customs And Border Commissioner Alan Bersin Resigns

WASHINGTON -- Time's up for the head of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, who announced Thursday he is stepping down at the end of the year when his recess appointment expires.

Alan Bersin served as the administration's Southwest "border czar" on undocumented immigration and drug smuggling. President Obama nominated him to be CBP commissioner in September 2009, and appointed him commissioner in March 2010 after the Senate failed to confirm him.

"My service as Commissioner has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my public life," Bersin said in a statement. "I am immensely proud of the significant and meaningful achievements we have made on our borders and at our nation's ports of entry over nearly two years."

Bersin was one of 15 officials to be given temporary recess appointments in 2010 after their nominations stalled in the Senate. In November, Don Berwick, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and a lightening rod in the battle of health care reform, resigned from his temporary job before it expired at the end of the year.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano thanked Bersin for this service. "During his tenure, CBP has taken historic steps to secure our borders while facilitating legal travel and trade," she said in a statement, adding that he has "also been instrumental in facilitating new international agreements and public-private partnerships as well as developing new paradigms throughout the world in combating terrorism and international crime."

But Bersin's resignation came the same day that the Government Accountability Office released a report criticizing the agency for the way it trains and keeps track of newly hired officers, given recent incidents involving potential terrorists attempting to enter the country. It said covert tests conducted over two years found "significant weaknesses" in inspection routines at several ports of entry, and that more than 4,000 customs officers have not completed required training on "immigration fundamentals, immigration law, and agricultural fundamentals courses." The watchdog agency recommended better training and recordkeeping for new officers.

Deputy Commissioner David Aguilar will serve as acting commissioner until Obama nominates a new commissioner.

Comments

[Melissa Seifman]

06:47 PM on 12/28/2011

Can we now make this a non-appointed position made up of someone with experience, educational background, and interest rather than a position auctioned to the highest campaign contributor who's interested?

[highlyqualified]

09:07 AM on 12/23/2011

He was not a "czar" he was the head of a Cabinet level agency. Republican effort to destroy the government include not allowing agencies to be run well. CBP is still in recovery after 8 years of Bush administration incompetance.

[Tony Paulinsky]

06:13 PM on 05/26/2012

hehe..lol..omg..kool aid stand is open

[greyhound2]

08:37 AM on 12/23/2011

Anybody who takes this job immediately has about 12 million people who hate his guts. That is the estimated number of illegal aliens already in this country who refuse to go home and think they have a right to ignore the laws, cut to the front of the line and get a free pass to the welfare office.

[exhale09]

06:53 AM on 12/23/2011

Instead of building a border fence they should Pass an Immigration Reform Bill to FIX the Immigration problem and then put people to back work building rows of wind turbines and/or solar panels down the entire length of the border...then we would get something back for the tax payer dollars being spent. Jobs and green energy power.

[SPacific]

02:19 AM on 12/23/2011

Republicans: Bush Czars good....Obama Czars bad......It's all you need to know about the "mindset" of the right wing dolts on this post

[JDZSB]

07:57 PM on 12/22/2011

This is what happens when you use recess appointments and bypass the review and approval of Congress. Obama himself has so little experience in any area, he has relied on others to select candidates for his CZARs or other political appointees like Bersin, and Obama hopes they will do the job. So, I am not surprised that these people fail or choose to resign on their own after getting thrown into the fire, particularly if it is an arena they have little direct experience. Running an organization as complex and large as Customs is a big job and would be a 24/7 commitment to start with, and what adds pressure is the current political environment which is critical of what is happening in this arena. So, Bersin, which has been under a lot of criticism lately, probably decided it is just not worth it any more.

[army193]

07:16 PM on 12/22/2011

The appointment of czars is nothing new in Washington. President Obama apparently likes the idea of appointing them -- he's got a bunch of czars. as reported by Fox News, wait let see how Bush did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._executive_branch_czars

[rdk70816]

06:26 PM on 12/22/2011

One Czar down. We are making progress.

[PrehensileOne]

07:22 PM on 12/22/2011

If it makes you feel better, you can call him Commissioner Bersin. As head of US Customs he runs a workforce of 58,000 employees and an annual budget of nearly $12 Billion annually. I'm sorry if “Commissioner” is too long a word for fans of Glen Beck.

[rdk70816]

08:34 PM on 12/22/2011

One southwest border czar and appointed commissioner down. We are making progress.

[Rteefact]

03:43 AM on 12/23/2011

You do realize its the Czars that actually run the various government departments. They are an extensiion of the Executive Branch. The big shame here is the loss of continuity of management. because some Senator decided to filibuster a confirmation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._executive_branch_czars

[fabuloush2s]

05:54 PM on 12/22/2011

Let's see if Joe Apaio the racial sheriff from Az... would like to apply for the job. He is so out of it in his own policies and proving everyday what could be the leadership, if he wasn't exposed early on.

[l78lancer]

05:20 PM on 12/22/2011

There will be a continuing succession of these individuals until the congress and the president get serious about fixing the border...and immigration policy.

[F7]

06:01 PM on 12/22/2011

There will be a continuing succession of these individuals until congress gets around to actually confirming a nomination.

[l78lancer]

06:43 PM on 12/22/2011

After that, they still have to fix or write proper legislation and commit dollars to resolving the problem. The appointment will be the least of the concerns.

[haiku man]

05:20 PM on 12/22/2011

Bersen: "I was waiting for Obama to lead, but that's clearly not going to happen"

[Blogging Patriot]

05:02 PM on 12/22/2011

Conservatives owned congress for 12 years and the White House for 8. Republicans grew the intelligence community to more than 1,200 government organizations and more than 1,900 private companies working on counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in some 10,000 locations across the U.S. And in all that spending left the borders open.

In fiscal 2010 the removal pace of criminal aliens was fully 60% higher than in the last year of the Bush administration. In 2011 the Obama administration set a new record for deportations. Under Bush the majority of removals were people who had not been convicted of any crime, a trend reversed by Obama. The only other time deportations came close to the levels of the Obama administration was in the early 1930s. The pace of company audits has roughly quadrupled since President Bush's final year in office.

The number of illegal immigrants skyrocketed in the first half of the decade, rising from 8.4 million in 2000 to a high of 12 million in 2007.

And it is Obama's immigration policy that conservatives condem.

[THE SHOT]

07:09 PM on 12/22/2011

The amount of Illegals that are in this country is a guesstamation, is there someone counting them as they cross. Don't think so, in any case leave your blown apart numbers are bogus....

[SPacific]

02:17 AM on 12/23/2011

Right...Don't let the facts get in your way...After all, you're a republican.....

[The Anti-Con]

09:48 AM on 12/23/2011

oh yeah according to you via Faux it is 100million.

[thegreatdaveo]

04:37 PM on 12/22/2011

This isn't Russia. Stop calling these people "czars."

[Hank10303]

05:08 PM on 12/22/2011

But Regean named the first Czar

[thegreatdaveo]

05:56 PM on 12/22/2011

Did Reagan specifically call it that?

[Contact1972]

05:20 PM on 12/22/2011

Cute pup

[thegreatdaveo]

05:55 PM on 12/22/2011

Yours too!

[rda1911a1]

04:24 PM on 12/22/2011

Great job Brownie er I mean Bersin

[formeraf80]

03:59 PM on 12/22/2011

Janet praises him for a fantastic job,, then the inspector general says the place is in a mess,,,,officers not trained,,record keeping lacking,,,and 4000 secret border checks failed....Only in the public sector would something like this happen....in the real world,,, janet and all of the others would have been fired long ago......

[USANEWSJUNKIE]

05:53 PM on 12/22/2011

Learn to read. 4000 is referring to the number of officers out of 58,000 whom have not completed training. Not '4000 secret border check failed'.

[The Anti-Con]

10:07 AM on 12/23/2011

Hey DF watch NatGeo, they have a show called Border Wars and the check points do not fail... its the swimmers and fence hoppers they are battling..

[formeraf80]

11:20 AM on 12/23/2011

Splitting hairs Anti,,,,,Janet and that liberal crew (who want more illegals) are responsible for ALL illegals,,,regardless of how they enter....