Eduardo Aguirre Jr.

duardo Aguirre Jr. arrived in the United States at the age of 15, as one of 14,000 "Pedro Pans" who were smuggled out of Cuba by American- and Cuban-based religious groups. The children were sent as unaccompanied minors to America by desperate Cuban parents who didn't want their sons and daughters growing up under President Fidel Castro.

The children were welcomed as refugees, and most, like Aguirre and his younger brother, were sent to orphanages and foster homes across the country. Aguirre lived in a New Orleans orphanage and foster home for several years.

With the help of charitable organizations, he went on to college, though he acknowledged in an interview with The Miami Herald in September 2003 that his trouble with English caused him to flunk out twice before he was able to earn a bachelor's degree from the College of Business Administration at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, La. He also graduated from the American Bankers Association's National Commercial Lending Graduate School in Oklahoma.

He went on to top positions in the banking industry, retiring as vice chairman and chief operating officer of the Export-Import Bank. He was named "one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the nation" by Hispanic Business magazine.

Aguirre, 57, says the two experiences-as a lonely refugee, and as a banker with leadership and customer-service skills-serve him well in his role as director of Homeland Security's Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The bureau is one of the agencies created by the 2002 Homeland Security Act to replace the Immigration and Naturalization Service. With 250 offices and about 15,000 employees, the bureau adjudicates all petitions for asylum, naturalization, and refugee status formerly handled by the INS. Aguirre took over an organization that was almost universally berated for its substantial backlogs, outdated technology, and often-hostile attitude toward immigrants seeking services.

Stressing his desire to take a business approach to his agency and treat applicants like clients, Aguirre said in a December 2003 speech at the Summit Institute's International Forum in Ontario, "President Bush has tasked me with welcoming immigrants with open arms, not endless lines."