Welcome to Gonzales Watch - Blawging the Ex-Attorney General

In a topic that the U.S. Attorney doesn’t always put on his agenda, Alberto Gonzales told the Detroit Economic Club today what it was like growing up in a family of immigrants from Mexico:

I grew up in a large family descended from Mexican immigrants, who had come to America with nothing more than their names, their work ethic, and their desire to make a better life for themselves and their children. They saw America through the eyes of immigrants, with the hope and reverence that many of us have sadly forgotten.
Growing up I learned how America’s founders had written that “all men are created equal.” But still I had the uncomfortable knowledge that some folks didn’t see me as just “Alberto Gonzales.” They might see me as Hispanic, or as being inferior because I looked different or was from a certain, poor neighborhood. I knew that some people I encountered in life might miss the other important things about me because of that narrow view.
My mother told me stories of not being able to go into a restaurant except through the back door. And I remember visiting the graves of relatives buried in the “Mexican section” of a cemetery.
My experiences were not unlike those of so many other American minorities.

Gonzales recently testified before the U.S. Senate that immigration cases are the largest category of lawsuits filed by the Department of Justice (”Nearly one third of the 60,000 new cases”). His own family’s immigration status notwithstanding, the country’s top lawyer in charge of prosecuting immigration-related offenses recently admitted “immigration enforcement is such a high priority for the Department, [and] I am committed to doing more.”

His statements today also seem to be at odds with his defense of former U.S. Attorney Carol Lam who led immigration-related prosecutions in Southern California along the border with Mexico. Lam received heated political critcism from Rep. Darrell Issa (Rep. - Cal.) about her role as U.S. Attorney. Issa reportedly contacted Karl Rove at the White House to discuss his unhappiness with Lam, and allegedly sought her ouster. Lam is now a Senior Vice President and Legal Counsel at Qualcom.

Christian Science Monitor reporter Peter Grier suggests in tomorrow’s paper that, contrary to many pundits, the fact that Gonzales has remained in office may be a good tactical move for President Bush and his administration.

By remaining Attorney General and taking heat for the Justice Department’s U.S. Attorney firings debacle, “he remains a focus for criticism that might otherwise be directed elsewhere.” That criticism includes e-mails suggesting that White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers played roles in helping selecting the U.S. Attorneys who they believed should be fired.

Grier also posits that if Gonzales were to resign from his job as the country’s top prosecutor, Bush would face an uphill battle in a Democratically controlled Congress getting a new U.S. Attorney nominee confirmed before the U.S. Senate.