Topics That He Can Address: diversity,
lack of Hispanic representation in the federal work force, Hispanic
under-representation in the Senior Executive Service (SES), and the landmark
discrimination case Perez v. FBI which proved that the FBI systemically
discriminated against Latino FBI Agents and retaliated against him for filing
EEO Complaints against the FBI.
Contact information: perez123@comcast.net.
Mr. Pérez was born September 26, 1939 in Lone Pine, California, and
received his early education in Fresno and Camarillo, California. He began his
career as a messenger with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1960,
at FBI Headquarters. He subsequently graduated from Georgetown University,
Washington, D.C., receiving his Bachelor of Science Degree in 1963.
He entered on duty with the FBI as a Special Agent in September, 1963, and
was assigned to Tampa, Florida, and then to San Antonio, Texas. He studied
Portuguese and subsequently was assigned to the Washington field Office. He
then served in Miami, Florida from 1965 until January 1971, when he was ordered
to FBI Headquarters to the Intelligence Division. Mr. Pérez served in
Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, as the Special Assistant to the Counsel General
from January, 1972, to September, 1975. He returned to Headquarters to the
Inspection Division, and thereafter, the Records Management Division. He became
a Terrorism Supervisor in the Los Angeles FBI Office in March, 1977, while
performing collateral liaison duties in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia
and Paraguay for a second tour.
Mr. Pérez was designated Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the San Juan,
Puerto Rico Office in March, 1979, and Special Agent in Charge in November of
the same year. In May, 1982, he was named second-in-command in the Los Angeles
FBI Office, and in January, 1984, he was transferred in the same capacity to
the El Paso, Texas Office.
On May 22, 1989, he became Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI Laboratory,
Washington, D.C. From March 6, 1991, to December 31, 1994, Mr. Pérez was
Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in New Mexico. On December 31, 1994, he
retired from the FBI and worked as an international security consultant.
During 1998 and 1999, Mr. Pérez was Vice-President of Security and
Compliance for Ladbroke/USA. Recently, Mr. Pérez conducted special
investigations for Governor Bill Richardson, and consulted for the Canadian 1-800-Missing
television series. Presently, he works as a Private Investigator for H&H
Private Investigations in New Mexico.
He served in the
FBI for 34 years and was assigned to thirteen different field offices in
the
EEOC Meeting of
October 23, 2008 – Issues Facing Hispanics in the Federal Workplace
Good Morning. Madame Chairperson, and Members of the EEOC Commission.
Thank you for inviting me to speak to you today on ‘The Realities and
Barriers Faced by Hispanics in the Federal Sector’.
September 30th marked the 20th Anniversary of the Federal Court decision in
the landmark class-action civil rights case, entitled Bernardo M. Pérez,
Plaintiff v. Federal Bureau of Investigation et al., Defendants.
Sam Martinez, a retired FBI Agent, and leader in that fight is here today
--- and so is my friend, Nelson Hermilla, Department of Justice Attorney, who
boldly took me up to Capitol Hill, after I filed the lawsuit, to seek support
for the battle.
Senators Joe Biden and Orin Hatch helped us --- along with John Conyers and other
members of Congress. Some Congressional leaders such as former Congressman
Henry B. Gonzalez were afraid to get involved. And America’s two largest
national Hispanic organizations – LULAC and MALDEF – refused to help.
Federal Judge Lucius D. Bunton, heard the case -- and ruled that the FBI
systemically discriminated against me and 310 other Hispanic Special Agents. He
also found, separately, that the FBI retaliated against me for filing nine EEO
Complaints.
He then ruled that then FBI Director William Webster’s EEO Program and the
FBI promotion system were “bankrupt”. Webster was not punished… and
subsequently became Director of the CIA. No one was held responsible,
ultimately for the FBI’s failures. And the consequences went beyond the
lawsuit class members…
Richard Yerby, Leo Ramos and George Rodríguez, my Attorneys in the
unsuccessful EEO hearing, before the trial, went unpaid. The EEO Judge found no
discrimination.
My successful trial Attorneys Hugo Rodríguez and Antonio Silva –- after a
long and intense legal effort – suffered devastating family turmoil – and went
bankrupt.
The Bureau forced my then fiancée, Yvonne Shaffer, to submit to illegal
polygraph examinations to elicit information they hoped to use against me. She
quit the FBI. Director Webster ordered me not to date her. I married her and
the FBI came after me in different ways as part of their campaign to force my
resignation.
I had investigated Klan cross-burnings in Florida, police brutality cases
in Texas, and other civil rights violations… But I refused to accept and
admit that discrimination existed at “my” beloved FBI. I even argued with
my own father and insisted that the FBI was “incapable” of discrimination: But,
I finally came to understand a painful truth – He was right, I was wrong.
My brave wife, a former FBI stenographer was the catalyst for that fight.
She made me realize that by ignoring discrimination against Hispanics at the
FBI, I was sacrificing my ethics to justify continuing my career.
My career was dying and when I finally filed my first EEO Complaint. That
was the “last straw” for the FBI who had graciously allowed this Latino into
the world’s ‘premier’ investigative organization.
I was among the elite when I became an Agent in 1963 under J. Edgar Hoover.
There were fewer than ten Latino Agents out of approximately seven thousand FBI
Agents.
Filing an individual EEO Complaint against the Bureau was unheard of. To
follow it with a class-action lawsuit from 310 of the 452 Latino Agents in the
FBI outraged Bureau executives and most other Agents. Many FBI Officials
demanded that Director Sessions not let this case go to trial. This demand was
made in my presence. I was called disloyal because we had openly charged the
FBI with discrimination. We knew our rights as American citizens were
meaningless unless we stood up and demanded equal treatment under the law and
the right to be promoted fairly.
It was not a matter of loyalty; it was a matter of justice.
After we prevailed in Federal Court in El Paso, Texas, I was “promoted” to
the FBI Laboratory in Washington, D.C. and, reluctantly, the FBI complied with
Judge Bunton’s Order to promote me to an SES 4 position. My boss had to be
promoted first, because he was only an SES 3.
After a year and a half at Headquarters, where I was the ‘invisible man’, I
threatened to sue the FBI again for continuing discrimination and retaliation
against the class members. We were worse off than before the lawsuit. I was
involuntarily demoted to SES 3 (can this happen?) and transferred to the field
as the Special Agent in Charge of the Albuquerque Division. Other FBI Officials
returned to the Field with their SES rank intact.
Five years later, in 1995, after 33 years of FBI service, I retired but I
still feel the sting of recrimination for having filed suit against the FBI. My
story is not unique, but tragically, it is representative of what happened to
most class-action members and their careers.
Because we prevailed in the lawsuit, open retaliation accelerated with a
vengeance and to this very day we are punished. Class-members were denied
court-ordered rightful place seniority and subsequently we retired at lower
grades than those ordered by Judge Bunton, who died in January, 2001.
The FBI internal affairs office, known as the Office of Professional
Responsibility, conducted more than sixteen investigations against San Antonio
Supervisor Gil Mireles (one of my brave EEO Counselors); but couldn’t find any
wrong-doing. Gil was added to the long list of those Agents forced out of the
FBI for demanding their rights as Americans. Ironically, the FBI is responsible
for investigating violations of civil rights laws in the United States. Who
guards the guards? Is it you, the EEOC and Congress, or does the FBI answer to
anyone? Apparently, not.
After the trial, FBI leaders deliberately disregarded Judge Bunton’s orders
to fix the ‘bankrupt’ EEO process and the Promotion System in the FBI.
Predictably, those Hispanic Agents who testified at trial – falsely- that
the FBI did not discriminate… were among the first to be promoted after the
ruling.
Shortly after my assignment to the FBI Lab, I made eighty-eight (88)
allegations of perjury and wrong-doing by top FBI Officials during the trial.
Director Sessions was unaware. The subsequent two-year investigation into these
charges by Inspector Dennis Curry and John Shiman has been lost by FBI.
Those FBI Officials who testified falsely and retaliated against us were
promoted, given plush assignments and retired at high SES levels. Director
William Sessions had been fired in part for letting Pérez v. FBI go to
trial.
The lead members of the ‘successful’ battle against discrimination are all
retired now and we loyal Americans pay every day for defending our
Constitutional rights. Would we do it again? YES, we had no choice.
Latinos in the FBI continue the battle that we started. Regrettably, this
battle is far from over. It continues in the FBI and throughout our Federal
Government and our Nation. Just listen to the news!
You conduct studies and wonder why more Hispanics don’t pursue careers in
the Federal service. Perhaps this will give you some insight into ‘The
Realities and Barriers Faced by Hispanics in the Federal Sector’.