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Alan Bersin

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Alan Bersin
Acting Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection
In office
March 27, 2010 – December 31, 2011
PresidentBarack Obama
Preceded byJayson Ahern (acting)
Succeeded byDavid V. Aguilar (acting)
Personal details
Born (1946-10-15) October 15, 1946 (age 78)
New York City, New York, U.S.
SpouseLisa Foster
EducationHarvard University (BA)
Balliol College, Oxford
Yale University (JD)

Alan D. Bersin (born October 15, 1946) served as the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Commissioner Bersin was appointed by President Barack Obama on March 27, 2010 as a recess appointment. As Commissioner, Mr. Bersin oversaw the operations of CBP’s 57,000-employee work force and managed an operating budget of more than $11 billion. Bersin formerly served as the Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs, informally known as the "Border Czar." Bersin later served as Assistant Secretary of International Affairs and Chief Diplomatic Officer for the Department of Homeland Security, a position he assumed on January 3, 2012 and held until January 2017.[1]

Bersin is a former Secretary of Education for California, as well as a former superintendent of San Diego City Schools, past federal Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) and United States Attorney for the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, and former Attorney General’s Southwest Border Representative. He previously served as the chair of the executive committee of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.[2]

Early life

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Bersin was born in 1946 to Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Bersin in Brooklyn, New York, and is Jewish.[3][4] He is fluent in Spanish.[5]

He attended public schools and Hebrew school in New York City. He attended Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, where he was a valedictorian.[4] In his senior year at the high school, he wrote an essay that won first place in the High School Contest on the United Nations, sponsored by the American Association for the United Nations, won a citation from the Mayor’s Committee on Scholastic Achievement, and was the co-editor of Vanguard, the student newspaper.[6]

He received an A.B. in American Government from Harvard College (magna cum laude) in 1968.[4][5] While at Harvard he won the Detur Prize for distinguished application to studies, and the James Bryant Conant Award for the best essay in Natural Science.[4][5] He was also elected to the Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society, and awarded post-graduate scholarships by the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the National Football Hall of Fame.[5] Playing defensive lineman, offensive guard, and linebacker for the Harvard Crimson football team , which went undefeated in 1968, he was named to the All-Ivy League, All-New England, and All-East football teams and was named an AP Honorable Mention All American.[5][7] In 1995 he was inducted into the Harvard Varsity Club Hall of Fame.[5]

He then attended Balliol College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar from 1969 to 1971.[4][5] He received a maximum annual stipend of $2,760.[4]

In 1974, he obtained a J.D. degree from Yale Law School.[5] Bersin was awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws (Honorary) by the University of San Diego in 1994, by California Western School of Law in 1996, and by the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in 2000.[5]

Career

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Early years

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Bersin practiced at the Los Angeles law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson from 1974 to 1992, and rose to be a senior partner.[5] He specialized in complex RICO, securities, commercial, and insurance litigation.[5][8] In 1992, he took a sabbatical and moved to San Diego to teach at the University of San Diego law school and work on Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign.[7]

Bersin then served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of California for five years.[5] From 1995 to 1998, he served as the Attorney General’s Southwest Border Representative, coordinating law enforcement on the border between the U.S. and Mexico.[5]

From 1998 to 2005 he served as Superintendent of Public Education in San Diego City Schools, in control of the eighth-largest urban school district in the U.S. He launched a major reorganization of the urban school district to focus its resources on instruction and on modernization of business infrastructure. [5] During that time, between 2000 and 2003, he was a member--and then Chairman--of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.[5]

From July 2005 to December 2006 he served as California's Education Secretary, having been appointed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.[5][9] Schwarzenegger then appointed Bersin to the California State Board of Education, where he served as a member until 2009.[5]

Bersin then served as Chairman of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, having been appointed by San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders in December 2006.[5]

In 2007, the nonprofit electronic journalism outlet voiceofsandiego.org[10] reported that Bersin was considering a run for San Diego City Attorney.[11]

Department of Homeland Security

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On April 15, 2009, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the appointment of Bersin as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs. In the press release announcing his appointment, Secretary Napolitano said, "Alan brings years of vital experience working with local, state and international partners to help us meet the challenges we face at our borders. He will lead the effort to make our borders safe while working to promote commerce and trade."[12]

In 2009, Bersin served as Assistant Secretary and Special Representative for Border Affairs in the Department of Homeland Security.[5] He was the lead DHS representative on border affairs and strategy that related to security, immigration, narcotics, and trade, as well as for coordinating DHS border security initiatives.[5]

From 2010 to 2011, Bersin served as Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), oversaw the operations of CBP’s 58,000-employee work force, and managed a $12 billion operating budget.[5] He oversaw CBP’s efforts to secure the borders of the U.S. and mitigate threats to it, while at the same time supporting legal trade and travel.[5]

Bersin served as Assistant Secretary for International Affairs, and as Chief Diplomatic Officer, for the U.S. DHS Office of Policy.[5] He oversaw DHS’s international engagement, was the DHS Secretary's principal advisor on international affairs, and led the DHS activities in strategic planning and policy formulation.[5] He also served as Vice President of INTERPOL for the Americas Region, and was a member of the INTERPOL Executive Committee, after he was elected to those positions in November 2012.[5]

Bersin's recess appointment in 2010 was effective until the end of the next session of Congress. Through the rest of 2010 and 2011, Republicans in the Senate refused to hold a confirmation hearing on the nomination, so in December 2011 he was required to step down.[13]

Law firm practice

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After leaving government service, Bersin became a senior advisor at the international law firm Covington & Burling.[14][15]

Philanthropy and other activities

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In 2014, Bersin announced the Mildred and Arthur Bersin Scholarship, to be awarded to students from Gompers Preparatory Academy, Abraham Lincoln High School, and the Preuss School who are accepted into Harvard University.[16]

Bersin served as a member of the Board of Overseers for Harvard University (2004-10), and the Chair of the Visiting Committee for the Harvard Graduate School of Education (2007-10).[5] He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the Pacific Council on International Policy.[5]

Bersin also serves as an Inaugural Senior Fellow in the Homeland Security Project at the Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government; as a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington D.C.; as Inaugural North America Fellow at the Canada Institute and the Mexico Institute (Wilson Center); and as a member of the Advisory Committee to the Quebec Government Office in Washington.<ref name=crim> He is Chairman of BorderWorks Group, a consulting firm specializing in border security and management; and Executive Chairman of Altana Trade, which is devoted to providing machine learning and artificial intelligence-based insights on border management and global trade.<ref name=crim>

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Alan Bersin". 27 June 2016.
  2. ^ San Diego County Regional Airport Authority. "Board Members". Archived from the original on 9 February 2007. Retrieved January 1, 2007.
  3. ^ San Diego Jewish Journal (2003). "The hardest job in America?". Archived from the original on 18 April 2009. Retrieved April 15, 2009.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "B'klyn Rhodes Scholars Hope for New Ideas," Daily News.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa "Alan Bersin, Acting Assistant Secretary, Office of Policy," Department of Homeland Security.
  6. ^ "Seniors Reap Honors As Graduation Nears," Lincoln Log, June 1964.
  7. ^ a b "Bersin, Alan, Previous Commissioner," allgov.com.
  8. ^ "Alumni Network Newsletter," Munger, Tolles & Olson.
  9. ^ John Marelius; Maureen Magee; Gordon Smith. "Bersin to be state education secretary". Archived from the original on 6 December 2006. Retrieved January 1, 2007.
  10. ^ "Voice of San Diego | Local News. Investigation. Analysis". Voice of San Diego. 2024-04-10. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  11. ^ "Bersin Considering a Run for City Attorney". Archived from the original on 2008-10-10. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
  12. ^ "DHS Press Release, April 15, 2009". 15 April 2009.
  13. ^ Brinkerhoff, Noel; David Wallechinsky (December 24, 2011). "Senate Republicans Block Confirmation of Head of Customs and Border Protection". AllGov. Retrieved 2011-12-25.
  14. ^ "Alan Bersin". Covington. Retrieved 4 July 2018.
  15. ^ "Alan Bersin; Harvard Kennedy School; Senior Fellow, Belfer Center, Harvard Kennedy School; Global Fellow, Wilson Center," Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis (CINA) Center.
  16. ^ "Assistant Secretary of International Affairs and Chief Diplomatic Officer for the Department of Homeland Security Visits GPA," Gompers Prep.
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Political offices
Preceded by Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection
2010–2011 		Succeeded by
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