The San Diego World Affairs Council presents the
"Distinguished Speaker" Series
Peter Núñez
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Enforcement under President George Bush
Former Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Presenting:
"Politics has affected border security, immigration, and drug trafficking: How our federal government has failed in its essential duty to ensure that the 'laws are faithfully executed'"
Wednesday, 13th October 2021 from 6:30-8:00 p.m. (PST)
Peter K. Núñez began his career in law enforcement in 1972 as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorneys Office in San Diego, California. He held a number of positions in that office before being appointed as the U.S. Attorney by President Ronald Reagan in 1982. Mr. Núñez served as the U.S. Attorney through August of 1988, when he left to become a litigation partner in the San Diego office of one of California's largest civil law firms.
In 1990, he was appointed by President George Bush to be the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Enforcement in Washington, D.C. He was responsible for all law enforcement functions of the Treasury Department, including the Customs Service, the Secret Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, the Criminal Investigations Division of the Internal Revenue Service, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Mr. Núñez also served as the Chairman of the Southwest Border Committee, which had primary responsibility for the coordination of law enforcement activities along the U.S.-Mexican border, and chaired Project Northstar on the U.S.-Canadian border. He also served as the co-chairman of the U.S. National Central Bureau of INTERPOL.
During his tenure as Assistant Secretary, Mr. Núñez represented the United States in numerous bilateral and multilateral negotiations relating to international money laundering. He represented the Treasury Department and its law enforcement bureaus in bilateral and multilateral efforts to improve coordination and cooperation among the international law enforcement community. Finally, he coordinated the Treasury Department’s law enforcement efforts with the Departments of Justice, State, Defense, and other appropriate departments and agencies.
He was a member and past president of the San Diego Crime Commission, the past vice president of the San Diego Prevention Coalition, a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C., and a member of the Board of Visitors at the University of San Diego School of Law. He has been a lecturer in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of San Diego from 1997 to 2013, specializing in criminal justice, transnational crime and terrorism, and immigration policy.
Between 1998 and 2004 he provided training, advice, and technical assistance to various foreign governments with respect to legal reform and the improvement of their criminal justice systems. He has been a law enforcement advisor to the Governments of Armenia and El Salvador under a program sponsored by the Treasury Department. He has also worked with government officials in Georgia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt, Turkey, Brazil, Israel, China, and India in the development of legal reforms in criminal justice and law enforcement. Mr. Núñez currently serves as the West Region Director of Forfeiture Support Associates, a nationwide government contractor providing support services to many federal law enforcement agencies and the U. S. Attorneys Office.
Mr. Núñez graduated from Duke University in 1964, served in the U.S. Navy, and attended law school at the University of San Diego, graduating cum laude in 1970. Upon graduation from law school, he served as a law clerk for the Honorable Gordon Thompson, Jr., U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of California.
Zoom link - https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81805323523?pwd=M3BBZ2s2dmR3WXJHYkJqYVRLbitoZz09
