Senate Finance Committee, Hearing Statement of Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.) Regarding the Nomination of Alan Bersin to be Commissioner of Customs:

Mr. Bersin, President Obama has appointed you Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, or CBP.  As such, you and the agency that you lead must display the traits that President Roosevelt defined as indelibly American.  You must show courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity, and hardihood.

At the heart of your credibility as the Commissioner of CBP will be enforcement of the laws about whether employees are legally able to work here.  And this duty goes to the heart of the responsibilities of the Department of Homeland Security. 

Mr. Bersin, while the Finance Committee was vetting your nomination, we discovered that you failed to properly complete and maintain Employment Eligibility Verification forms, or I-9s.  You failed to do so for any of the 10 household employees whom you employed over the past two decades.

As the person responsible for securing our nation’s borders, your failure to follow the law in this matter is unacceptable. 

During the April recess, President Obama exercised his power to make recess appointments.  Among those appointments was yours.  The Constitution gives the President that right.

But it is also the right of the Senate, and the role of this Committee, to review your record and decide whether you will be allowed to continue your service beyond 2011.

• Associate Press,Border Chief Scolded for Not Following Hiring Law
• wsbradio, Obama Nominee Trouble
• Washington Post,  Customs Commissioner Neglected to File Forms on Household Employees

(Hat Tip: Woody McNair.)