Rep. Coffman wants former ICE agent's hearing open to the public

By Keren E. Crummy, The Denver Post, November 24, 2009

U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman on Monday called on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to intercede in her agency's "bureaucratic stonewalling" in order to ensure that the public can attend a former immigration agent's administrative hearing in Colorado.

Coffman's request comes after a lawyer for Immigration and Customs Enforcement chose a small conference room with no public access to hold Cory Voorhis' wrongful-termination hearing Dec. 9-10. It's being conducted via video conferencing because the administrative judge is in another state.

"It is not merely spectacle, nor are only those with partisan motives interested — rather, the situation playing itself out involves grave questions for our citizens," Coffman said in a letter faxed to Napolitano. "The lack of transparency in a situation that has garnered so much justifiable public interest reflects poorly on our government."

Voorhis accessed a restricted database and provided information to Republican Bob Beauprez's 2006 gubernatorial campaign. He was later acquitted of charges relating to the incident in federal court, but he still lost his job with ICE.

The key witness expected to testify at the hearing is Tony Rouco, who supervised Voorhis and whom Voorhis has said he told about accessing the restricted database at the time he did it. Voorhis has maintained Rouco supported his decision.

Rouco has denied he knew about Voorhis' actions until later. The Denver Post reported last month that an internal ICE investigation found Rouco "willfully gave false testimony under oath" at Voorhis' trial last year. He also made false statements to the FBI and ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility and failed to report employee misconduct, according to an April 2009 ICE internal investigation report.

Rouco remains on the job, and there is no public indication he was disciplined for his conduct.

While terminated employees generally have public hearings, they are not guaranteed that right, said ICE attorney Robert Erbe in court filings. Therefore, access "will be limited to the appellant, his attorneys, and the witnesses," he said.

Voorhis' attorney, Tom Muther, objected to the location, calling Erbe's contention that it would be "nearly impossible" to find something large enough to accommodate spectators "specious" and said the agency was "intentionally" trying to shut out the public.

Last week, Erbe told Muther that "safety and security concerns" were a primary factor in banning the public from the proceeding, according to e-mails obtained from Voorhis.

Coffman complained about the private hearing to ICE's congressional relations staff and offered to help find another location, but was told that it wasn't ICE's problem. Rather, he should contact the Merit System Protection Board, which oversees federal civil servants.

"I find this, frankly, to be a blatant attempt at bureaucratic stonewalling and blame shifting," Coffman wrote.

Read the complete article.

Fair Use: This site contains copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of issues related to mass immigration. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information, see: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode17/usc_sec_17_00000107----000-.html.
In order to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.