Thomas Perez, currently head of the Civil Rights division of the U.S. Justice Department, is President Obama’s choice for labor secretary.
Obama made the announcement Monday at a White House press conference.
“Tom knows what it’s like to climb the ladder of opportunity,” Obama said. “He is the son of Dominican immigrants. He helped pay his way through college as a garbage collector and working at a warehouse. He went on to become the first lawyer in his family.”
Perez, a 51-year-old Harvard-educated lawyer, was secretary of labor in Maryland from 2007 to 2009 when he was tapped to join the Justice Department.
While Maryland secretary of labor, Perez “helped implement the country’s first statewide living-wage law because he understood that a minimum wage should be a wage that you can live on,” Obama said.
Perez is expected to face opposition from some Republican senators.
The Washington Post reported shortly after the President’s announcement that Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said Obama’s choice is “an unfortunate and needlessly divisive nomination.”
The labor secretary’s top priority “should be to create jobs and higher wages for American workers,” Sessions reportedly said, “But Mr. Perez has aggressively sought ways to allow the hiring of more illegal workers.”
Obama has yet to announce his choices to head the departments of Transportation and Commerce. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is still in his post but has said he plans to leave as soon as the president finds a replacement.
