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President Bush on Tuesday renominated the chief of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, who was put in her position through a controversial recess appointment last January, to continue in the job.

With Democrats in control of the new Congress, Julie Myers likely will face an even tougher confirmation process than she did when Bush first tapped her in 2005. Democrats have questioned her background and the adequacy of her experience.

At the time of Myers' recess appointment, Democratic leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he had "serious questions about her ability" and was "concerned that the president has handed a key appointment to someone who is not prepared."

Reid's office declined to comment Wednesday on Myers' renomination. ICE press officials did not respond to requests seeking comment.

Multiple Capitol Hill sources said Wednesday that it remains too early to gauge how lawmakers will react to Myers this time around, but they acknowledged that her recess appointment frustrated some. Her new confirmation hearings have yet to be scheduled.

Supporters of the Kansan and niece of former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers have said that her management experience and relationship with the White House and the Homeland Security Department made her well-suited for the job. She is also the wife of DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff's chief of staff.

Chad Boudreaux, who served as ICE's deputy chief of staff when Myers joined the agency last year, said she worked tirelessly to meet mandates such as ending the catch-and-release tactic of giving apprehended illegal immigrants a court summons instead of detaining them.

"She just transformed that agency," he said. "She played a large part in some of the creative ideas."

But workers within ICE's Federal Protective Service and its Office of Detention and Removal were critical of the administration's move to seek Myers' reappointment. They said she has focused too heavily on investigators and has given less thought to the needs of other employees such as detention officers.

"She's pretty much given [ICE investigative units] everything they've asked for," one agency source said.

ICE was criticized from multiple angles last year. Private sector and government reports pointed to flaws in the agency's financial management, and an insider alleged the agency violated federal appropriations law through a funding transfer. A budget shortfall at the agency's Federal Protective Service and the elimination of police retention pay also were the subject of concern.

Russ Knocke, a DHS spokesman, said Myers has "demonstrated outstanding leadership and vision during her tenure, and has established a new and powerful federal law enforcement agency." He urged the Senate to move quickly to confirm her.

Bush on Tuesday renominated several other key officials the Senate did not approve last session. He again named Susan Dudley, a scholar at George Mason University's Mercatus Center in Alexandria, Va., to head the Office of Management and Budget's regulatory affairs branch.

Environmental and other interest groups have criticized anti-regulatory stances Dudley has taken in her research. But at a Senate hearing in November, the nominee told lawmakers she recognized the distinction between her academic work and her potential role at OMB.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee never voted on Dudley, however. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, former chairwoman of the panel, cited time constraints and significant opposition to the nominee. Dudley would likely have an even harder time in the new Democrat-controlled Senate.

If confirmed, she would replace 17-year OMB veteran Steven Aitken, who has headed the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on an acting basis since last summer.

Bush also renamed David Palmer, chief of a litigation section in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, to serve on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Palmer would fill a vacancy on the five-person panel created by the late-August departure of former Chairwoman Cari Dominguez, but would serve as a commissioner rather than in the lead position, which has been filled by former Vice Chairwoman Naomi Earp.

Amelia Gruber contributed to this report.

COMMENTS

• For those of you with less than 30 years of criminal investigative experience, let me share with you a historical fact. In July 1973, the federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) became the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). As many as 300 US Customs Agents were pulled from the Treasury Department, many against their will and with no say in the matter, and put into the new DEA. The change was difficult for many of the former US Customs Service agents to accept. However, years later, most if not all of those former Customs Agents were delighted to be with DEA. They received promotions and transfers to positions and locations never imagined with the US Customs Service. It took a good ten years for DEA to become the agency it is today. Give ICE some time to evolve and with the 400-plus laws it is responsible to enforce, my guess is that more agents from other federal agencies will be looking to transfer into an ICE SA position. Before any of this will happen, ICE management, from HQ down to the SAC Offices, will need to make some major adjustments in their attitude about this agency. GovExec.com reader Posted March 10, 2007 12:59 AM
• “I am not only sickened but embarrassed as well by all the bickering that is still going on… if Customs was so great, why did Customs management always screw the agents out of money that they were rightfully and legally entitled to?... At least INS paid their Agents what they were entitled to.” I thought you were sickened and embarrassed by the bickering? The bickering is contributed to by poor leadership, but it is mainly symptomatic of ICE itself as an agency. We all do our jobs in my office, as well. And while I do my job (and after I go home), I continue to speak out against this disaster. Why is it that so many of you can’t grasp the concept that just because we have a problem with ICE doesn’t mean we have stopped doing our jobs? As for the issues with DRO, those issues were put to rest before you chimed in. You obviously ignored those posts. Go back and re-read them (or read them for the first time). Your comments show no recognition whatsoever to those previous posts, most likely because they would have gotten in the way of the arguments you want to make. Lastly, stop telling us we shouldn’t have a problem with ICE when you didn’t experience what we did. You don’t have the same frame of reference from which to judge this, and I am tired of explaining this. The bottom line is that whatever ICE means to legacy INS 1811’s, it was a huge step backward for legacy Customs 1811’s. And surely you can’t be dumb enough to think that anyone who has a problem can simply quit, are you? I thought this was obvious, but most of us aren’t financially able to retire early and forfeit our pensions. The fact I have to point that out is pretty ridiculous. GovExec.com reader Posted February 20, 2007 10:13 PM
• Don't worry pal, as soon as I find something else, I will leave, as hundreds have already done since this foolish and unjustified merger! Since ICE is just the new INS, this hasn't been much of a change for legacy immigration agents, and they even got a promotion to a journeyman GS-13 out of it. Unfortunately, for the rest of us, this was a traumatic change in our careers that we never asked for, or wanted, and we got nothing from this but aggravation. If you can't understand that, that says a lot about you. By the way, by your reasoning, the next time a legacy INS agent gets a duty call involving narcotics, or money laundering, or strategic, or fraud, they should just handle it, right? After all, as you said, we are told we have to handle immigration duty calls ourselves, rather than refer them to the human smuggling, benefit fraud, NSU, or other immigration groups. And you wonder why people are unhappy! Customs agents didn't want to be INS agents, and vice versa. These morale problems will not go away, until all legacy Customs and INS agents are gone, and you only have ICE agents, who won't know any better. Of course, no matter what happens, this agency will never get any respect, and will remain the laughingstock of federal law enforcement unless and until the President and Congress finally decide to do the right thing, and provide decent leadership and direction to this sinking ship! GovExec.com reader Posted February 20, 2007 12:26 PM