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WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday picked Alexander Acosta, a Hispanic Republican and former member of the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), as his nominee to head the Labor Department.
The son of Cuban immigrants is the first Hispanic that Trump has nominated to a Cabinet position.
"He has had a tremendous career," Trump said at a press conference in White House, "I think he'll be a tremendous secretary of labor."
A Harvard law graduate, Acosta is currently the dean of law school at Florida International University (FIU). He served in the NLRB from December 2002 to August 2003, according to his bio on FIU's website.
In 2003, he became the first Hispanic U.S. assistant attorney general, under President George W. Bush's administration, in charge of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. He was also appointed to be U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
For all the three presidentially appointed positions, Acosta has gone through multiple background vettings by the Senate.
Trump's first Labor Secretary nominee, Andrew Puzder, withdrew on Wednesday as facing opposition from a number of Senate Republicans. He is the highest profile of Trump's cabinet picks to remove the nomination himself.
