I can hear it now. “Heck of a job, Julie…”

Yesterday, President Bush took advantage of the Congressional recess and appointed that weathered veteran of immigration, customs and law enforcement, Julie Myers, as Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security (Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

That’s right, she is in. Julie Myers, age 36, is - at least until the end of this year - head of the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Immigration Enforcement [ICE].

A recess appointment by the Bush administration. Feel safer?

ICE has more than 20,000 employees and a budget of approximately $4 billion and is responsible, as you may assume from the title, for enforcing immigration laws in the United States. Myers is the niece of a General (an American General). She was an assistant to Michael Chertoff. She is married to his Chief of Staff.

Those are her qualifications.

A quote on the possibility of Myers as a boss from the Washington Post, September 20, from Charles Showalter, president of the National Homeland Security Council, a union that represents 7,800 ICE agents, officers and support staff.

“My question is: Who the hell is going to enforce the immigration laws?”

Myers, acknowledging her total lack of qualifications for the political appointment, was quoted in September with this, also from the Washington Post:

“I will seek to work with those who are knowledgeable in this area, who know more than I do.”

Umm…that is a long list, Julie.

If this were any other administration, we would wonder why someone who knows the most about customs and immigration law enforcement was not appointed. But, we think Showalter has it pretty much nailed…in the America ruled by willing employers, nobody, Mr. Showalter, nobody will enforce immigration laws , but she will look good while she is not doing it.

I learned of Myers’ appointment a few minutes ago in a phone conversation with a very hard-working and dedicated senior ICE agent here who has become a friend.

Having heard nothing about it anywhere else, I hit the internet in curious anger. As I type this at lunchtime, I don’t find a news story on the Myers appointment on Google, but I did find excellent coverage on Debbie Schlussel’s Website , and can recommend reading her observations on the advancement of Julie’s career.

I asked my friend at ICE what he and his co-workers thought about their new boss. His response says it all much better than I can.

“Any viable law enforcement agency would have someone with a background in law enforcement at its head…it goes to show the lack of professionalism and accountability involved.” “D.A. - the appointment speaks for itself.”

Yes Special Agent, it does.

[Vdare.com note: see also Not Another Homeland Security Hack and Julie Myers—The Straw That Broke Bryanna’s Back.]

“If you’re an illegal immigrant, watch out.”< /strong> says the St. Paul Pioneer-Press. [Illegal immigration a 'real issue' Jan. 4, 2006]

Now the “election-year grandstanding” Pawlenty says he wants to create something called the “Minnesota Illegal Immigration Enforcement Team of 10″ that will make life miserable for illegals, their employers and even those rascals who earn a living cranking out phony IDs.

Waving some of those bogus ID documents in front of reporters, the iron-fisted Pawlenty stunned everyone:

“You’d have to be really living under a rock not to see this as a real issue”

A real issue for just about all of us, with the exception of politicians like the newly inaugurated St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman (e-mail him) who already has placed his oath of office in the Circular File:

“The governor is wrong on this issue. Inclusion is the future, and trying to differentiate between people, instead of including all people and working together, is just the wrong message and the wrong direction.”

God, what’s next? Will Minnesota lose its image of being a “welcoming state” for immigrants? Will Pawlenty succeed in creating an atmosphere that will forever change the “public perception of Hispanics?”

Stay tuned . . . .