Senate GOP Seeks Damning Memo by Labor Nominee

Two Republican senators are seeking a memo allegedly written by Julie Su, President Joe Biden’s nominee for Labor Secretary, issued in 2017 when she was California’s Labor Commissioner directing her staff to obstruct U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement officials who visited state labor offices.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee voted along party lines last week to advance Su’s nomination for a full floor vote. But Bruce Cassidy, R-La., the committee’s ranking member, and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., wrote a letter dated Monday to Stewart Knox, secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, requesting his office provide a copy of the memo to them by May 8.

According to the memo, cited in an August 2017 report by the Baltimore Sun, staff members should ask federal immigration agents “to leave our office, including the waiting room, and inform the agent[s] that the labor commissioner does not consent to entry or search of any part of our office.” If agents refuse to leave, the memo told employees to demand a search warrant signed by a judge before allowing them onto the premises.

“In response to her questions for the record, and in response to Senator Tuberville requesting the production of this memorandum, Julie Su stated that she ‘does not have access to this reported memo and do[es] not recall its precise contents,’ ” the senators wrote to Knox. “Therefore, pursuant to our constitutional responsibilities, we request that your office produce a copy of the 2017 memorandum issued by Julie Su to the Committee by May 8, 2023.”

Su, who was Marty Walsh’s deputy secretary at Labor before Walsh left to lead the NHL players’ union, has an uphill climb to get confirmed by the Senate. All 49 Senate Republicans are expected to unify against her, and with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., still on the sidelines for health reasons, the Democrats’ majority is sliced to one. Axios reported April 13 that Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has deep reservations about Su, so it would take only one more Democrat defecting to scuttle the nomination.

So far this year, two Biden nominations have not made it through the Senate: Gigi Sohn for an open seat on the Federal Communications Commission and Phil Washington to lead the Federal Aviation Administration. Each candidate withdrew after Democrats signaled their opposition.

Newsmax reached out to Knox for comment.