Washington, DC, June 16

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee thanks Assistant Attorney General R. Alexander Acosta of the US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division for his outstanding contribution to protecting the civil rights of all Americans. ADC wishes Acosta all the best of luck and a very bright future in his new capacity as Interim US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

Acosta was nominated by President George W. Bush in June 2003 and confirmed by the US Senate in August 2003, serving as the first Hispanic Assistant Attorney General at the Justice Department. During his tenure, Acosta presided over vigorous enforcement of civil rights statutes, including those statutes that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, sex, handicap, religion, and national origin in education, employment, credit, housing, publicaccommodations and facilities, and voting. Under his leadership, the Civil Rights Division met record levels of enforcement in a broad range of areas, including achieving a three-fold increase in the number of prosecutions of human traffickers over the previous four years, record levels of voting rightsenforcement, and the Department's most extensive election-monitoring effort ever.

ADC is sincerely grateful for Acosta's commitment and dedication. He was therecipient of ADC's 2005 'Friend in Government Award' in recognition of his unwavering efforts to combat discrimination and protect the civil rights and liberties of all Americans. He is also a 2004 recipient of the ADC Michigan's Distinguished Leadership Award,' the 2003 Hispanic Bar Association's Hugh A. Johnson, Jr. Memorial Award, and the Dalip Singh Saund Excellence in Public Service Award from the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF).