Bersin, Southers in line for top CBP, TSA posts

Bersin, Southers in line for top CBP, TSA posts    The White House, at the recommendation of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, is expected within days to recommend that President Barack Obama nominate Alan Bersin to be commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, according to a former Department of Homeland Security official with direct knowledge of the selection process.
   The source also said Erroll Southers, assistant chief for intelligence and emergency operations at Los Angeles World Airports, is the frontrunner to be administrator of the Transportation Security Administration.
      AmericanShipper.com reported on March 17 that Bersin was the leading candidate to be CBP commissioner, but attention shifted away after Napolitano named him as an assistant secretary and special representative for border affairs.
   Bersin, a former federal prosecutor, previously served as chairman of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority. From July 2005 to December 2006, he was California’s secretary of education. Before joining Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration, he spent seven years as school superintendent for San Diego.
   Bersin, 62, served during the Clinton administration as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California for almost five years and as the Justice Department’s first border czar responsible for coordinating federal law enforcement along the Mexican border.

Bersin

   The new ‘border czar’ position was created in mid-April as a temporary holding spot to get Bersin quickly involved dealing with a trouble spot like the Southwest border.
   A spate of early nominations that were derailed, or nearly revoked, because of problems with unpaid taxes or ongoing investigations led the White House to follow a more thorough process for vetting the background of Bersin and other people being considered for political appointments.
   The selection process has also been delayed by the White House’s focus on several domestic and foreign policy issues such as health care and the economy.
   Assistant secretary positions are not subject to Senate confirmation and Bersin’s current position sets up for an easy transition because the CBP commissioner is essentially the de facto ‘border czar’ in charge of the Border Patrol.
   The Obama administration has made controlling the border between California and Texas a top priority as the Mexican government tries to contain the violence from its all-out crackdown on drug cartels. The United States is now conducting much more sustained inspections of outbound traffic looking for guns and currency that help sustain the narco-traffickers, providing training and equipment to Mexican authorities, and better coordinating intelligence and activities among federal, state, local and Mexican law enforcement agencies.
   CBP is also responsible for enforcing import and export regulations, preventing the entry of dangerous pests and products, collecting duties and other fees, and controlling the entry and exit of people and cargo.

Southers

   Southers is in charge of emergency services, the canine unit, vulnerability assessments, critical infrastructure protection and anti-terrorism efforts at Los Angeles International Airport and three surrounding regional airports. He is also associate director of the University of Southern California’s Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events. Southers also served as a detective in the Santa Monica Police Department.
   The largest component of the Transportation Security Administration is responsible for protecting airports and airplanes from attack. The agency is also responsible for overseeing security for highways, railroads, buses, mass transit systems and ports.
   Carol DiBattiste, a former deputy administrator of TSA during the Bush administration and now a senior vice president at LexisNexis, was recently informed that she is no longer in the running for TSA administrator, the source said.
   Calls to a DHS spokesperson and Southers’ cell phone were not returned by press time. ‘ Eric Kulisch