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Alexander Acosta

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Alexander Acosta
Official portrait, 2017
27th United States Secretary of Labor
In office
April 28, 2017 – July 19, 2019
PresidentDonald Trump
DeputyPatrick Pizzella
Preceded byTom Perez
Succeeded byEugene Scalia
Dean of the Florida International University College of Law
In office
July 1, 2009 – April 28, 2017
Preceded byLeonard Strickman
Succeeded byAntony Page
United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida
In office
June 11, 2005 – June 5, 2009
PresidentGeorge W. Bush
Barack Obama
Preceded byMarcos Jiménez
Succeeded byWifredo A. Ferrer
United States Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division
In office
August 22, 2003 – June 11, 2005
PresidentGeorge W. Bush
Preceded byBradley Schlozman (acting)
Succeeded byWan J. Kim
Member of the National Labor Relations Board
In office
December 17, 2002 – August 21, 2003
PresidentGeorge W. Bush
Preceded byWilliam Cowen
Succeeded byRonald Meisburg
Personal details
Born
Rene Alexander Acosta

(1969-01-16) January 16, 1969 (age 55)
Miami, Florida, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
SpouseJan Williams
EducationHarvard University (BA, JD)

Rene Alexander Acosta (born January 16, 1969)[1] is an American attorney and politician, who served as the 27th United States Secretary of Labor from 2017 to 2019. President Donald Trump nominated Acosta to be Labor Secretary on February 16, 2017, and he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 27, 2017.

A member of the Republican Party, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to the National Labor Relations Board, and later served as the assistant attorney general for civil rights and the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida. He is a former dean of Florida International University College of Law. He has twice been named on the ‘50 most important Hispanics’ list by Hispanic Business Magazine.

In 2007–2008, as U.S. attorney, Acosta approved a plea deal that allowed child-trafficking ring-leader Jeffrey Epstein to plead guilty to a single state charge of solicitation, in exchange for a federal non-prosecution agreement.[2] After Epstein's arrest in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges, Acosta faced renewed and harsher criticism for his role in the 2008 non-prosecution agreement, as well as criticism and calls for his resignation; he resigned on July 19 and was replaced by Eugene Scalia.

Background

[edit]

Acosta is the only son of Cuban immigrants.[3][4] He is a native of Miami, Florida, where he attended the Gulliver Schools. Acosta received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Harvard College in 1990, and received a Juris Doctor degree cum laude from Harvard Law School 1994.[5] He is the first member of his family to graduate from college.[4]

Early career

[edit]

Following law school, Acosta served as a law clerk to Samuel Alito, then a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, from 1994 to 1995.[6] Acosta then worked at the office of the law firm Kirkland & Ellis in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in employment and labor issues.[7] While in Washington, Acosta taught classes on employment law, disability-based discrimination law, and civil rights law at the George Mason University School of Law.[8]

On December 31, 2013, Acosta became the new chairman of U.S. Century Bank,[9] the largest domestically owned Hispanic community bank in Florida and one of the 15 largest Hispanic community banks in the country. During his tenure as chairman, U.S. Century Bank had its first year-end profit since the start of the Great Recession.[3] Acosta was a member of the Board of Trustees of Gulliver Schools, where he served a past term as board chairman.[10]

George W. Bush administration

[edit]

Acosta served in four presidentially appointed, U.S. Senate-confirmed positions in the George W. Bush administration. From December 2001 to December 2002, he served as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.[11] From December 2002 to August 2003, he was a member of the National Labor Relations Board for which he participated in or authored more than 125 opinions.[12]

Then, he became Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division on August 22, 2003,[13] where he was known for increasing federal prosecutions against human trafficking.[14] Acosta authorized federal intervention in an Oklahoma religious liberties case to help assure the right to wear hijab in public school,[15] and worked with Mississippi authorities to reopen the investigation of the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black youth whose abduction and murder helped spark the civil rights movement.[16][17] He was the first Hispanic to serve as Assistant Attorney General.[18]

While leading the Civil Rights division, Acosta allowed his predecessor, Bradley Schlozman, to continue to make decisions on hiring.[19] A report by the inspector general and the Office of Professional Responsibility later found that Schlozman illegally gave preferential treatment to conservatives and made false statements to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Those findings were relayed to the office of the United States attorney for the District of Columbia,[11] but Schlozman was not prosecuted.[19] While it put the primary responsibility on Schlozman, the report also concluded that Acosta "did not sufficiently supervise Schlozman" and that "in light of indications [he and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Sheldon Bradshaw] had about Schlozman's conduct and judgment, they failed to ensure that Schlozman's hiring and personnel decisions were based on proper considerations."[11][19]

U.S. attorney for Southern District of Florida

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In 2005, Acosta was appointed as the U.S. attorney for Southern District of Florida, where his office successfully prosecuted the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the terrorism suspect José Padilla, the founders of the Cali Cartel, and Charles McArther Emmanuel, the son of Liberia's former leader.[11][20]

The district also targeted white collar crime, prosecuting several bank-related cases, including one against Swiss bank UBS. The case resulted in UBS paying $780 million in fines, and for the first time in history, the bank provided the United States with the names of individuals who were using secret Swiss bank accounts to avoid U.S. federal income taxes.[21]

Other notable cases during his tenure include the corruption prosecution of Palm Beach County Commission chairman Tony Masilotti, Palm Beach County commissioner Warren Newell, Palm Beach County commissioner Mary McCarty,[22] and Broward sheriff Ken Jenne; the conviction of Cali Cartel founders Miguel and Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, for the importation of 200,000 kilos of cocaine, which resulted in a $2.1 billion forfeiture; and the white-collar crime prosecutions of executives connected to Hamilton Bank.[23]

Acosta also emphasized health care fraud prosecutions. Under Acosta's leadership the district prosecuted more than 700 individuals, responsible for a total of more than $2 billion in Medicare fraud.[24]

Jeffrey Epstein case

[edit]

In 2008, U.S. attorney Acosta approved a federal non-prosecution agreement[2] with Jeffrey Epstein. That secret agreement, conducted without consulting the victims, was later ruled illegal by a federal judge for violating the Crime Victims' Rights Act.[25]

In March 2005, the Palm Beach Police Department began a 13-month undercover investigation of Epstein, including a search of his home, based on reports that he was involved with sex trafficking of minors.[26][27] Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation resulted in a 53-page indictment in June 2007.[26]

Acosta, then the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, agreed to a plea deal,[28] to grant immunity from all federal criminal charges to Epstein, along with four named co-conspirators and any unnamed "potential co-conspirators". That agreement "essentially shut down an ongoing FBI probe into whether there were more victims and other powerful people who took part in Epstein's sex crimes". At the time, this halted the investigation and sealed the indictment.

Renewed interest

[edit]

In 2017, Acosta was nominated for Secretary of Labor. His handling of the Epstein case was discussed as part of his confirmation hearing.

On November 28, 2018, as rumors circulated that Acosta was being considered as a possible successor to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Miami Herald published an investigation detailing Acosta's role in the Epstein case. That story revealed the extent of collaboration between federal prosecutors and Epstein's attorneys in their efforts to keep victims from learning of the plea deal.

The Miami Herald describes an email from Epstein's attorney after his off-site meeting with Acosta: "'Thank you for the commitment you made to me during our Oct. 12 meeting,' Lefkowitz wrote in a letter to Acosta after their breakfast meeting in West Palm Beach. He added that he was hopeful that Acosta would abide by a promise to keep the deal confidential. 'You ... assured me that your office would not ... contact any of the identified individuals, potential witnesses or potential civil claimants and the respective counsel in this matter,' Lefkowitz wrote."

The Miami Herald article stated that certain aspects of Acosta's non-prosecution agreement violated federal law. "As part of the arrangement, Acosta agreed, despite a federal law to the contrary, that the deal would be kept from the victims. As a result, the non-prosecution agreement was sealed until after it was approved by the judge, thereby averting any chance that the girls — or anyone else — might show up in court and try to derail it." Victims, former prosecutors, and the retired Palm Beach police chief were among those quoted criticizing the agreement and Acosta's role in it.[29]

Victims' rights violation

[edit]

After a lawsuit was filed in federal court, in 2019, a court ruled that the non-prosecution agreement was invalid and that prosecutors had violated the victim's rights with their non-prosecution agreement.

On February 21, 2019, a ruling in federal court returned Acosta's role in the Epstein case to the headlines.[30] The decision to keep the deal with Epstein secret until after it was finalized was found to be a violation of the Crime Victims' Rights Act of 2004 (CVRA), which requires notifying victims of the progress of federal criminal cases. The CVRA was new and relatively untested at the time of the Epstein non-prosecution agreement. In 2008, representatives for two of Epstein's victims filed a lawsuit in federal court aiming to vacate the federal non-prosecution agreement on the grounds that it violated the CVRA.[29] For more than a decade, the U.S. Attorney's office denied that it acted in violation of victims' rights laws and argued that the CVRA did not apply in the Epstein case.[31] The government's contention that the CVRA did not apply was based on questions of timing (whether or not CVRA applied prior to filing of federal charges), relevance (whether the CVRA applied to non-prosecution agreements), and jurisdiction (whether the case should be considered a federal case or a state case under the CVRA). The court rejected those arguments in the February 21, 2019 ruling, finding that the CVRA did in fact apply and that victims should have been notified of the Epstein non-prosecution agreement in advance of its signing, to afford them the opportunity to influence its terms. At the conclusion of his ruling, the federal judge in the case noted that he was "not ruling that the decision not to prosecute was improper", but was "simply ruling that, under the facts of this case, there was a violation of the victims rights [for reasonable, accurate, and timely notice] under the CVRA."[32]

Because the CVRA does not specify penalties for failure to meet victims notification requirements, the judge offered both parties opportunities to suggest remedies—Epstein's victims who were party to the suit asked for rescission of the federal non-prosecution agreement with Epstein, while the government suggested other approaches, maintaining that other victims were against rescinding the agreement due to privacy concerns and possible impacts to restitution paid under the agreement.[33] Following the Herald investigation and related news coverage, members of Congress submitted a formal request to the U.S. Department of Justice for review of Acosta's role in the Epstein deal,[34] and several editorials called for Acosta's resignation or termination from his then-current position as U.S. Labor Secretary.[35][36] In February 2019, the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility notified Senator Ben Sasse that it had opened an investigation into Epstein's prosecution.[37][38]

Epstein's arrest and Acosta's resignation

[edit]

On July 6, 2019, Epstein was arrested by the FBI-NYPD Crimes Against Children Task Force on sex trafficking charges stemming from activities alleged to have occurred in 2002–2005.[39]

Amid criticism of his mishandling of the Epstein case, Acosta resigned his role as Secretary of Labor effective July 19, 2019, after a public outcry.[40]

According to an internal review conducted by the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility, which was released in November 2020, Acosta showed "poor judgment" in granting Epstein a non-prosecution agreement and failing to notify Epstein's alleged victims about this agreement.[41]

Crucially, when he was vetted for his cabinet post in the Trump administration, Acosta stated “I was told Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ and to leave it alone.”[42]

Law school dean

[edit]

On July 1, 2009, Acosta became the second dean of Florida International University College of Law.[43] He spearheaded the effort to establish the Master of Studies in Law in banking compliance, Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money-laundering at FIU Law.[18]

Secretary of Labor

[edit]

Nomination and confirmation

[edit]
Acosta meeting with apprentice program participants as the secretary of labor.

President Donald Trump announced in a press conference on February 16, 2017, that he would nominate Acosta to fill the position of Secretary of Labor after the nomination of Andrew Puzder was withdrawn.[44][45][46][47][48] Acosta was recommended by White House counsel Don McGahn.[49] Acosta is the first, and – as of May 2019 – the only Hispanic person to serve in Trump's cabinet.[50][51][52][53][54]

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held confirmation hearings on March 22, 2017, and Acosta's nomination was reported out of the committee on March 30, 2017. [55]

On April 27, 2017, Acosta was confirmed as Secretary of Labor by the U.S. Senate in a 60–38 vote. He received the support of eight Democratic Senators and all Republican senators except Senator Pat Toomey, who did not participate in the vote.[56] On April 28, 2017, Acosta was sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence.[57]

Tenure

[edit]

In 2019, Acosta proposed cutting the funding of his department's International Labor Affairs Bureau from $68 million in 2018 to under $20 million in 2020. That agency combats human trafficking (including child sex trafficking), child labor and forced labor internationally.[58][59]

During Acosta's confirmation hearing, he discussed the need and his support of apprenticeship as a workforce development tool to close the skills gap.[60] On June 15, 2017, President Trump signed Executive Order 13801, "Presidential Executive Order Expanding Apprenticeships in America", establishing the Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion with Acosta serving as the chair.[61][62] The task force held five public meetings and issued their final report to President Trump on May 10, 2018.[63][62]

Following the task force final report, the U.S. Department of Labor announced the following initiatives to expand and promote apprenticeship opportunities:

Acosta announced that the Trump administration maintained a goal of one million new apprentices.[67]

Acosta resigned as Labor Secretary, effective July 19, 2019, following criticism of his role in the Epstein case.[68]

Recognition

[edit]

Acosta has twice been named one of the nation's 50 most influential Hispanics by Hispanic Business Magazine. He serves or served on the Florida Innocence Commission,[69] on the Florida Supreme Court's Commission on Professionalism,[70] Florida Supreme Court's Access to Justice Commission,[18] and on the Commission for Hispanic Rights and Responsibilities.[71] In 2008, Acosta was named as one of the 100 most influential people in business ethics by the Ethisphere Institute.[72]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Weaver, Jay; Yanez, Luisa (May 28, 2009). "U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta to lead FIU's law school". The Miami Herald.
  2. ^ a b ""Non Prosecution Agreement In Re Investigation of Jeffrey Epstein," September 24, 2007". Scribd. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
  3. ^ a b "Trump's labor pick is FIU law dean and a former Miami U.S. attorney". Miami Herald. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  4. ^ a b "Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta". DOL.gov. United States Department of Labor. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
  5. ^ "Alexander Acosta '94 nominated to be labor secretary". Harvard Law Today. February 16, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  6. ^ Adams, T. Becket (February 16, 2017). "6 things to know about Alexander Acosta, Trump's new pick for labor secretary". Washington Examiner. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  7. ^ King, John; Raju, Manu; Merica, Dan (February 16, 2017). "Trump names first Hispanic Cabinet pick". CNN. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  8. ^ Smith, Nancy (February 16, 2017). "FIU Law School Dean, Alexander Acosta, Trump's Secretary of Labor Pick". Sunshine State News. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  9. ^ "Former U.S. Attorney becomes chairman of U.S. Century Bank". By Brian Bandell of South Florida Business Journal. December 12, 2013. Retrieved February 24, 2014.
  10. ^ "Our Leadership". Gulliver School. Archived from the original on June 12, 2020. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  11. ^ a b c d Office of the Inspector General; Office of Professional Responsibility (January 13, 2009). An Investigation of Allegations of Politicized Hiring and Other Improper Personnel Actions in the Civil Rights Division (PDF) (Report). Archived from the original (PDF) on May 13, 2017. Retrieved May 12, 2017.
  12. ^ Morrow, Brendan (February 16, 2017). "R. Alexander Acosta: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know".
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  14. ^ "A passion of Trump's new Labor secretary pick: Trafficking 'is evil. It is hideous.'". miamiherald. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
  15. ^ "Statement of R. Alexander Acosta before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights Hearing Entitled: "Protecting the Civil Rights of Muslim Americans", March 29. 2011" (PDF). Retrieved June 28, 2019.
  16. ^ Newman, Maria (May 10, 2004). "U.S. to Reopen Investigation of Emmett Till's Murder in 1955". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
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  21. ^ Graham, David (February 16, 2017). "Trump's New Pick for Secretary of Labor: Alexander Acosta". The Atlantic. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  22. ^ "Mary McCarty's Fall From Grace". FloridaTrend. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
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  24. ^ "The Issue: Health Care Fraud Costly". Sun Sentinel. May 24, 2009. Archived from the original on February 22, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  25. ^ Brown, Julie K. (February 21, 2019). "Federal prosecutors broke law in Jeffrey Epstein case, judge rules". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on May 29, 2020. Retrieved May 29, 2020.
  26. ^ a b Brown, Julie K. (November 28, 2018). "For years, Jeffrey Epstein abused teen girls, police say. A timeline of his case". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on August 15, 2019. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
  27. ^ Brown, Julie K. (November 28, 2018). "Cops worked to put serial sex abuser in prison. Prosecutors worked to cut him a break". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on August 2, 2019. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
  28. ^ North, Anna (July 31, 2019). "Alan Dershowitz helped sex offender Jeffrey Epstein get a plea deal. Now he's tweeting about age of consent laws". Vox.com. Archived from the original on August 21, 2019. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  29. ^ a b "How a future Trump Cabinet member gave a serial sex abuser the deal of a lifetime". Miami Herald. November 28, 2018. Retrieved November 28, 2018.
  30. ^ Berman, Mark (February 22, 2019). "Judge: Prosecutors' deal with Jeffrey Epstein in molestation case violated law, misled victims". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 28, 2019.
  31. ^ Musgrave, Jane. "BREAKING: Feds explain sweet deal for billionaire sex offender Epstein". Palm Beach Daily News. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
  32. ^ "Doe v. United States. Opinion and Order". www.documentcloud.org. February 21, 2019. Retrieved February 24, 2019.
  33. ^ Briquelet, Kate (June 25, 2019). "Feds Want to Uphold Billionaire Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's Shady Plea Deal". Retrieved July 9, 2019.
  34. ^ Birnbaum, Emily (December 4, 2018). "Lawmakers call for investigation into Labor Secretary Acosta for sex offender plea deal". TheHill. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
  35. ^ Goldberg, Michelle (December 3, 2018). "Opinion | Why Does Alex Acosta Still Have a Job?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
  36. ^ "Alex Acosta, you made a mockery of Florida's sex offender laws. It's time to resign". Miami Herald. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
  37. ^ "Justice Department opens probe into Jeffrey Epstein's plea deal". NBC News. February 7, 2019.
  38. ^ Kullgren, Ian (February 6, 2019). "DOJ opens investigation into Alexander Acosta plea deal". Politico. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  39. ^ Shallwani, Pervaiz; Briquelet, Kate; Siegel, Harry (July 6, 2019). "Jeffrey Epstein Arrested for Sex Trafficking of Minors". The Daily Beast. Retrieved July 7, 2019.
  40. ^ Karni, Annie; Sullivan, Eileen; Scheiber, Noam (July 12, 2019). "Acosta to Resign as Labor Secretary Over Jeffrey Epstein Plea Deal". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 11, 2022.
  41. ^ "DOJ review finds Alex Acosta used 'poor judgment' in Jeffrey Epstein deal | CNN Politics". CNN. November 12, 2020.
  42. ^ Ward, Vicky (July 9, 2019). "Jeffrey Epstein's Sick Story Played Out for Years in Plain Sight". The Daily Beast.
  43. ^ "FIU Law Dean Acosta nominated for U.S. labor secretary post". February 16, 2017. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  44. ^ "President Donald J. Trump Nominates R. Alexander Acosta to be Secretary of Labor". whitehouse.gov. Retrieved August 9, 2018 – via National Archives.
  45. ^ "Trump announced Alexander Acosta as new Labor Secretary pick on Thursday". NBC News. February 16, 2017. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  46. ^ Baker, Peter (February 16, 2017). "R. Alexander Acosta, Law School Dean, Is Trump's New Pick for Labor". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
  47. ^ Rucker, Philip (February 16, 2017). "In an erratic performance, President Trump shows his supporters who's boss". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  48. ^ Baker, Peter (February 16, 2017). "'I Inherited a Mess,' Trump Says, Defending His Performance". The New York Times. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  49. ^ Cook, Nancy (May 16, 2017). "Trump's top lawyer faces a giant cleanup job". Politico.
  50. ^ "Trump to name Alexander Acosta as labor secretary nominee". Politico. February 16, 2017. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
  51. ^ John King; Manu Raju; Dan Merica (February 16, 2017). "Trump to announce Alexander Acosta as labor secretary pick". CNN. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
  52. ^ "Trump to name Alexander Acosta as new Labor secretary nominee". USA Today. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
  53. ^ "A look at Trump's Cabinet picks". ABC News. March 3, 2017. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
  54. ^ Choi, Matthew (April 4, 2019). "Trump names Jovita Carranza, U.S. treasurer, to head SBA". Politico. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
  55. ^ "PN88 — R. Alexander Acosta — Department of Labor". Congress.gov. United States Congress. April 27, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  56. ^ United States Senate. "On the Nomination (Confirmation R. Alexander Acosta, of Florida, to be Secretary of Labor)".
  57. ^ "R. Alexander Acosta sworn in as the 27th Secretary of the US Department of Labor". DOL.gov. United States Department of Labor. April 28, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  58. ^ Kindy, Kimberly; Somnez, Felicia; Rein, Lisa (April 3, 2019). "Acosta confronted by lawmakers over plea deal in Jeffrey Epstein sexual misconduct case". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
  59. ^ Pilkington, Ed (July 10, 2019). "Trump labor secretary who cut Epstein deal plans to slash funds for sex trafficking victims". The Guardian. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
  60. ^ "Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Hearings held. Hearings printed: S.Hrg. 115–268" (PDF). Congress.gov. United States Congress. March 22, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  61. ^ "Presidential Executive Order Expanding Apprenticeships in America". whitehouse.gov. June 15, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2019 – via National Archives.
  62. ^ a b "Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion Final Report to the President of the United States" (PDF). DOL.gov. United States Department of Labor. May 10, 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 21, 2019. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  63. ^ "Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion". DOL.gov. United States Department of Labor. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  64. ^ "Training and Employment Notice No. 03-18: Creating Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Programs to Expand Opportunity in America". DOLETA.gov. United States Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration. July 27, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  65. ^ "U.S. Department of Labor Announces Apprenticeship.gov". DOL.gov. United States Department of Labor. August 30, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  66. ^ "Homepage". Apprenticeship.gov. United States Department of Labor. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  67. ^ Barton, Mary Ann (March 4, 2019). "Trump administration to push for 'a million apprenticeships'". NACo.org. National Association of Counties. Archived from the original on April 2, 2020. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  68. ^ Block, Valerie (July 12, 2019). "Trump Labor Secretary Alex Acosta resigns amid pressure from Jeffrey Epstein sex traffic case". CNBC. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
  69. ^ "Publications". August 5, 2014. Archived from the original on August 9, 2018. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  70. ^ "Who is Labor secretary pick Alexander Acosta?". Fox News. February 16, 2017. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  71. ^ "Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights & Responsibilities". www.americanbar.org. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  72. ^ "100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics 2008". Ethisphere Institute. December 31, 2008. Archived from the original on January 7, 2009. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
[edit]
Legal offices
Preceded by United States Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division
2003–2005
Succeeded by
Preceded by
Marcos Jiménez
United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida
2005–2009
Succeeded by
Academic offices
Preceded by Dean of Florida International University College of Law
2009–2017
Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by
William B. Cowen
Member of the National Labor Relations Board
2002–2003
Succeeded by
Ronald Meisburg
Preceded by United States Secretary of Labor
2017–2019
Succeeded by
U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded byas Former US Cabinet Member Order of precedence of the United States
as Former US Cabinet Member
Succeeded byas Former US Cabinet Member